FAQ: Turkish Court Rules Against Banning Ak Party

Why was the AKP's fate seen as so important?

The party was re-elected on a landslide last July after five years in office that were generally deemed to have brought Turkey economic prosperity and political stability. It presided over democratic political reforms that earned the country a promise of possible EU membership by 2015. Following a program of economic liberalism, its policies prompted the US to view Turkey as a moderate pro-western Islamic democracy that could serve as a model to other Middle Eastern countries. The party's religious credentials have also enabled it to forge contacts with previously suspicious Muslim neighbors, allowing it to fashion a role as a mediator in regional disputes.

So why did Turkish prosecutors want it closed?

The chief prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, believed it wanted to replace Turkey's strictly secular system with sharia law. Despite its pro-western orientation, the party has religious roots. Many of its senior members, including the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, were educated in religious schools and steeped in political Islam.

The attempt to close the party was triggered by the government's decision last February to allow female university students to wear the headscarf, seen as an Islamist symbol. But the indictment also accused the AKP of other anti-secularist measures - such as local authority bans on alcohol sales and efforts to encourage halal food production standards.

Why is the secular-religious divide so sensitive?

Turkey's population is overwhelmingly Muslim but secularism is the legacy of the modern state's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who deemed it essential to making the country modern and developed. As a result, Islam has always been subjugated to the state. The secular establishment - broadly defined as the military, the judiciary and the bureaucracy - is committed to the status quo and deeply opposed to any attempts to alter the balance. However, the AKP has capitalized on the increasing wealth of the religiously conservative business classes in central Anatolia to pose a challenge to the old guard. Many of the party's rich backers favor a more prominent role for Islam.

Did the AKP accept that it is opposes secularism?

No. The party said the prosecution's case was a politically motivated "judicial coup" by a "secular elite" intent on safeguarding its vested interests from a newly emergent, socially conservative middle class. The AKP has always denied that it wants an Islamic state. It has gone further by trying to depict itself as the true heir of Ataturk - saying it wants to realize the modern society he envisioned. A common argument of AKP officials is that secularism is a principle applying only to states and not individuals, an argument that only serves to increase the suspicions of some secularists.

Is this the end of the argument?

No. Turkey's political landscape is riddled with mistrust. The AKP's actions will continue to be closely scrutinized by secularists. The focus will now switch to the forthcoming trial of an ultra-secularist cabal called Ergenekon, which is alleged to have been plotting a coup to topple the AKP government. The group is said to have been trying to foment a military takeover with a series of violent attacks designed to look like the work of Islamist and Kurdish organizations.

Last week a court in Istanbul indicted 86 people to stand trial in connection with the alleged conspiracy, which is said to have included retired army generals, academics and rightwing politicians. The AKP's opponents have dismissed the prosecution as revenge for the closure case.