Turkey's Demirel defends closure of Welfare party
Turkey's Demirel defends closure of Welfare party
ANKARA (Reuters): Turkey's president has defended the closure of the Islam-based Welfare party as a regrettable necessity, and the prosecutor in the case says he is ready to do the same to any other party that violates the secular code.
"It is impossible...not to feel sorrow at the closure of Welfare," Anatolian news agency quoted President Suleyman Demirel as saying late on Saturday. "However, nobody has the right or privilege to violate the laws of the Turkish Republic."
The constitutional court on Friday banned the main opposition Welfare Party and barred its leader Necmettin Erbakan from politics for five years for violating the secularist principles of the constitution.
But the Islamists, NATO member Turkey's largest single political grouping, are to reform under a new name and leader, a leading Welfare MP said on Saturday.
"A new party, a new formation with a new leader, will be formed in line with the current laws," former cabinet member Lutfu Esengun told a news conference at Welfare headquarters.
The prosecutor who brought the case to outlaw Welfare warned its successor not to violate Turkey's secular legal code.
"If we come to the opinion that a party is acting as the continuation of a banned party, we will, as the constitution orders us to, open a closure case against that party," newspapers quoted attorney general Vural Savas as saying.
The laws of overwhelmingly Moslem but officially secular Turkey strictly forbid any mixing of religion with politics.
As well as banning Welfare, the court stripped 71-year-old Erbakan and five other Islamists of their seats in parliament.
The party's remaining deputies will automatically become independents, offering a juicy prospect for Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz's fragile coalition government.
The party closure verdict drew adverse reactions from both aspirant EU member Turkey's Western ally the United States and its uneasy eastern neighbor Iran.
The United States, while no friend of the Islamists, said the ban damaged confidence in NATO ally Turkey's democracy.
The disapproval of the United States and European Union might deter the Turkish military, widely seen as behind the ban on Welfare, from seeking to drive its replacement from politics.
The closure of the party drew hostile media comment -- and some comparisons with Algeria -- from around the Middle East yesterday.
Newspapers in the region denounced the move by Turkey's constitutional court to ban Welfare and bar its leader Necmettin Erbakan from politics for five years as a blow to democracy which would not eliminate the trend the party represents.
"Ankara should know that by declaring the Welfare Party illegal, it has harmed the country's image and has brought into question the political authenticity of the Turkish system," the English-language Iran News in an editorial.
"Islam will remain in Turkey despite the dismantling of Welfare," said Saudi Arabia's al-Bilad. The Turkish army saw Islamists as a threat to secularism Ankara sees as its best bet to assert a Western identity, the newspaper added.
The London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat said the moves against Welfare could bring disaster on Turkey and solved no problems.
Pushing a party with about four million members underground would threaten the country's long-term stability.
The daily voiced fears that the Turkish military might divert attention from the domestic crisis by raising tension with arch- rival Greece over Cyprus and the Aegean islands.