ISTANBUL: Turkey’s highest court began considering yesterday whether to shut down the governing AK Party for religious activities against a background of tension following two bomb attacks in Istanbul over the weekend.
The blasts killed 17 people and wounded more than 150 on Sunday hours before the Constitutional Court was set to look at the case. Five of the dead were children, Istanbul Gov. Muammar Guler said.
“We have been fighting terror for 30 to 35 years. This fight will continue until we win it,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told residents at the site of the blasts in a working-class neighborhood on the European side of Istanbul. “Today is a day for unity,” Erdogan said. In the emotionally charged aftermath of the bombings, the Constitutional Court began examining whether the AK Party had engaged in Islamist activities and should be closed. The party denies the charges and a ruling is expected in early August.
The court case is linked to a power struggle between Turkey’s secularist establishment and the AK Party, which are at odds over the direction of the officially secular country. “Our problem is not whether or not the AK Party will be closed. Our problem at the moment is to keep our unity so our country will not go in a different direction,” Erdogan said.
