AKP Dodges The Bullet
Photo from Radikal
The Constitutional Court has finished its deliberations about whether or not the ruling AK Party should be closed down for being a center of anti-secular activities and 71 of its politicians banned from membership in a political party for 5 years. By a one-vote margin, the court has decided that the AKP should NOT be closed down. Instead, the court cut some of its state funding.
Votes:
6 for closing (Osman Paksüt, Fulya Kantarcioglu, Mehmet Erten, Necmi Özler, Sevket Apalak, Ayla Perktas)
4 to cut funding (Sacit Adali, Ahmet Akyalcin, Serdar Özgüldür, Serruh Kaleli)
1 against closing (Hasim Kilic)
7 votes were needed to close the party.
“We believe that the political party concerned will get the message it should from the verdict,” [court president] Hasim Kilic told reporters. Recalling the political tension in the country, Kilic called on all political actors to reconcile among them[selves] to avoid further polarization. (from Turkish Daily News story, click here)
The Constitutional Court has saved Turkey along with AKP.
Tee hee. See? Nothing to worry about.
Seriously, though, note that we still don’t have the judgement for the DTP and we now have the recent headscarf ruling. Things are not quite back to the status quo ante bellum. How would you translate “olumu gosterip, sitmaya razi etmek”?