Turkish Headscarf Ban Upheld

A defeat for the Islamists in Turkey. Which probably means rioting and murder will soon follow.

Turkey's Constitutional Court annulled the bill proposing to lift the headscarf ban saying it is an attempt to change nonamendable articles of the Turkish Constitution, the court said in a statement on Thursday. NTV reported seven members of the court voted for the cancellation of the law and four voted against. The decision dealt a big blow to the government of the Islamist-rooted AKP, which is under pressure of a closure case. An official with the AKP slammed the ruling saying the court violated the constitution.

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Turkey's Constitutional Court canceled legislation designed to ease curbs on the Islamic-style headscarf, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he seeks to avoid a political ban.

The court said that the constitutional amendments break Turkey's secular rules, according to a written statement handed to reporters in the capital Ankara today.

The ruling may increase the chance that the Constitutional Court bars Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party from politics for mixing Islam with the affairs of state. That trial has raised concern about political instability in mostly Muslim Turkey, bringing losses for stocks and the lira.

``The case for the Justice party's closure certainly becomes stronger now,'' said Wolfango Piccoli, an analyst at Eurasia Group in London, in a telephone interview. ``It doesn't look good at all for the party.''

The move by Justice to ease the curbs on the headscarf at the nation's universities forms the center-piece of a prosecutor's case at the Constitutional Court to ban the party, and bar 71 of its leading members from politics for five years.