|
European Court to Rule on Ban of Turkey's Islamic Party
STRASBOURG, July 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The European Court of Human Rights will rule Tuesday on whether a decision by Turkey to dissolve the pro-Islamic Refah (Welfare) party in 1998 was legitimate, news agencies reported.
The court has already condemned the secular government of Turkey for human rights abuses on three previous occasions for having banned Marxist or pro-Kurd political groups, the French news agency AFP reported.
The latest case, which opened in January, was brought by Refah's leader, 74-year-old former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, together with the party's former vice-chairmen Sevket Kazan and Ahmet Tekdal.
The Welfare party was in power at the time of its dissolution and Erbakan along with his two deputy leaders were stripped of their parliamentary seats.
The trio challenged the legitimacy of a decision by Turkey's constitutional court to dissolve Welfare on January 16, 1998, on the grounds that it had become "a center of activities against the principle of secularism", thereby the undermining democracy.
They accused Turkey's constitutional court of having violated the right to freedom of religion, expression and association and the right to free elections, as well as property rights because the party's assets were seized and handed over to the treasury.
The three further accused the Turkish court of not following its own rules for the dissolution of political parties, and of yielding to pressure from the country's military to dissolve Welfare.
A Turkish government lawyer maintained that the Welfare party threatened the secular values of Turkey, a mainly Muslim country, and accused the party of having hidden "anti-democratic ... aims", AFP reported.
The state has a right to protect itself against Islam's tendency "to settle not only religious and moral questions, but legal questions and to a certain extent the political order of the state," he said.
"It (the Refah party) would have been tolerated if it had remained on the fringes," the lawyer said.
But when the plaintiffs' lawyer Laurent Hincker was questioned by the judges on Welfare's political aims, he said it did not in any way resemble the Islamic movement Hezbollah.
Hincker maintained that Turkish democracy was merely a front, and that its constitutional court had dug up old speeches by Erbakan in a bid to justify the ban of his party.
Erbakan, along with Kazan and Tekdal are seeking damages and interest of 3,322 dollars (3,800 euros) for lost pay after being ousted from parliament. They also said 58,000 dollars worth of lost assets.
Welfare came to power under Erbakan in June 1996 at the head of a coalition formed after parliamentary elections the previous year.
Erbakan, Turkey's first Islamic prime minister, resigned as a result of an anti-Islamic campaign, led by Turkey's military, a staunch defender of secularism.
Aside from being stripped of their parliamentary seats, Erbakan and his two deputy leaders were barred from establishing, joining or leading any new political party for five years.
Welfare is not the only pro-Islamic party banned in Turkey. About forty other parties were banned in the last forty years in Turkey, a mainly Muslim country that applies a strictly secular regime.
Last month, Turkey's constitutional court outlawed Virtue Party, the main opposition party which has 102 seats in the parliament out of 550, on fears that a contrary decision would encourage other pro-Islamic movements.
The court accused Virtue Party of being a "focal point" of anti-secular activities and an illegal continuation of the outlawed Welfare Party.
Virtue has always denied the charge that it is the legal successor to the Welfare Party, which briefly held power five years ago.
After declaring the verdict June 22, Virtue leader Recai Kutan said the verdict was "a blow to Turkey's search for democracy and law".
Virtue has become the latest in a series of pro-Islamic parties to be closed down under Turkey's strictly secular system.
|
