Turkey's Chief Prosecutor Calls for Ban on Islamic Party

Turkey's Chief Prosecutor has requested the country's Constitutional Court to declare the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) illegal. This party was expected to win the parliamentary elections on November 3. Chief Prosecutor Sabih Kanadoğlu stated that the AKP should be banned because it has not fully complied with a previous ruling by the Constitutional Court. The court had ordered Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the party's leader, to resign from the party's founding board due to a prior conviction for inciting religious hatred by reciting a poem at a political rally. Although Erdoğan resigned from the founding board, he remained the party leader and continued campaigning for the party's candidates. Due to his previous conviction, he was barred from participating in the elections. Analysts say it is unclear what effect this new legal challenge will have on the elections. Public opinion polls indicate that the AKP is ahead of its rival, the secular and non-religious Republican People's Party (CHP). Some polls even suggest that the AKP may have enough votes to form a government without needing to ally with others. Although the AKP officially supports the separation of religion and state, many of its members, including Erdoğan, were previously part of two now-banned Islamic parties that sought to implement Islamic laws. Erdoğan vehemently denies that his party has any agenda for Islamic laws, claiming he has never believed in mixing religion with politics. However, Turkey's secular institutions, particularly the military, do not believe Erdoğan's statements. Over the past forty years, the Turkish military has overthrown three governments due to dissatisfaction with the direction set by politicians.