TURKEY:A STATE prosecutor has asked Turkey's top court to shut down the ruling AK Party for anti-secular activities, television said yesterday, potentially intensifying tensions between the secular elite and the government.
Meanwhile, a Kurdish mayor went on trial yesterday for publishing a story book in the Turkish and Kurdish languages, in a case critics say highlights continued opposition to minority rights in Turkey.
Turkish television stations quoted the court of appeals chief prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, as saying the AK Party, which has roots in political Islam, was a hotbed of anti-secular forces.
"It is a really shocking development. There is no proof that the AK Party is against secularism. The party and the prime minister have said at every opportunity that they adhere to secularism," AK Party deputy Zafer Uskul told broadcaster NTV.
"I don't find it likely that AK Party will be closed, but even opening such a case is unfortunate," he said.
The AK Party is locked in a battle with Turkey's secular elite, including the courts, over government efforts to lift a ban on female students wearing the Muslim headscarf at university.
But it is the first time the AK Party, which won a sweeping re-election last July, was taken to the constitutional court by a state prosecutor in an attempt to close the party.
The constitutional court is already reviewing an appeal by the nationalist-minded opposition Republican People's Party on the validity of parliament's constitutional amendments last month to partially lift the headscarf ban.
The secular establishment, including army generals and university professors, regards the headscarf as a symbol of political Islam and thus a threat to the country's separation of state and religion.
Prosecutors are also seeking a jail sentence of up to three years for Osman Baydemir, the mayor of Diyarbakir, the largest city of mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, and three other defendants in the publishing case, which was later adjourned until May 16th.
Turkey, under pressure from the EU, has eased some restrictions on the Kurds' language and culture in recent years, but human-rights groups say it must do more.
"From the cultural viewpoint, I believe publishing a book in Turkish and Kurdish is not a crime," Mr Baydemir told the court.
"Kurdish is a reality in this country just like Turkish; it should also be used in the public arena."
State prosecutors have focused on the use in the Kurdish book of the letters Q, X and W, which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet.
Turkish and Kurdish are unrelated languages.
"I believe the ban on letters not used in the Turkish alphabet is far behind the conditions of our time . . . Moreover, everyone uses these letters now in their daily life on the internet," said Mr Baydemir.
Mr Baydemir, target of numerous lawsuits by state prosecutors, belongs to the Democratic Society Party (DTP), which seeks more rights for Turkey's estimated 12 million Kurds.
Many Turks regard the DTP, which has 20 members of parliament in Ankara, as a mouthpiece for the PKK rebels.