Turkey's ruling party defends itself in court

The deputy prime minister defended Turkey's ruling party in court Thursday against charges that it is steering the country toward Islamic rule.

The Constitutional Court's chief prosecutor is demanding the Islamic-rooted party be disbanded for alleged anti-secular activity and that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and 70 other party members be barred from joining a political party for five years.

Erdogan's party has been locked in an increasingly tense power struggle with secular groups supported by the military and other state institutions, including the judiciary. This week police investigating an alleged coup plot by secularists rounded up two retired generals and some of the government's fiercest critics.

The court is expected to decide within months whether to grant the prosecution's request to disband Erdogan's party. Some observers have said a ruling in favor of disbanding the party could throw the country into political and economic instability.

"We will conclude the case as soon as possible," said deputy court chairman Osman Paksut.

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek, a former lawyer, and another party official delivered arguments in the party's defense during Thursday's closed-door hearing.

"From now on, it is up to the Constitutional Court," Cicek said as he left the court house. He gave no details of the party's defense, but said he told the court that a quick decision would help the government to see its future.

Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya laid out his case against the party on Tuesday, arguing there was a "clear and present" danger that the ruling party was seeking to impose Islamic law on Turkey.

Yalcinkaya has cited the government's attempt to permit Islamic-style head scarves at universities _ an attempt blocked by the Constitutional Court, which ruled last month the measure was unconstitutional.

The party _ formed in 2001 by politicians who once belonged to Turkey's Islamic movement _ has long denied it has an Islamic agenda, and notes reforms it has pushed that have helped Turkey start EU membership negotiations.

Some party members accuse the judiciary of undermining democracy by trying to shut down the party to topple the legitimately elected government.

Critics, meanwhile, say the police operation against secularists is an attempt to silence government opponents. Dozens of people, including retired military officers, have been detained during the investigation against an alleged network of extreme nationalists called "Ergenekon."

Former generals Hursit Tolon and Sener Eruygur, detained Tuesday, are the highest-ranking ex-soldiers arrested so far. Eruygur was a major organizer in anti-government rallies last year.

A conflict over Turkey's national identity has brewed since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, an army officer in World War I, founded the secular republic after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. He gave the vote to women, restricted Islamic dress and replaced the Arabic script with the Roman alphabet.

But Islam remained potent at the grass-roots level, and some leaders with a religious background have portrayed themselves as an alternative to the secular establishment.

Terra/AP