Turkey Official Seeks to Ban Ruling Party
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ANKARA, Turkey — The nation’s top prosecutor sought Wednesday to outlaw the ruling Islamic party in the most direct shot yet against beleaguered Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan.
Prosecutor Vural Savas said he filed a case with the Constitutional Court to outlaw Erbakan’s Welfare Party on the grounds that it endangers the basic tenets of the secularist Turkish state.
Erbakan has upset the secularist elite, led by the army, with plans for limited Islamic reforms. He became the first Islamic leader of modern-day Turkey in June.
Erbakan rejected the prosecutor’s charges.
Savas said the government was trying to destroy the secularist system set up in the 1920s after the fall of the religion-based Ottoman Empire.
Savas cited fiery speeches by Erbakan and other Welfare members that he said were calls for Islamic law to be imposed on Turkey, if necessary by violence.
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