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ANKARA-Turkey's top court on Thursday annulled a law allowing women to wear Islamic headscarves in universities on grounds it violates secularism, dealing a major blow to the ruling Islamist-rooted party.The law breached constitutional provisions that describe Turkey's secular system as an unalterable principle, the 11-member Constitutional Court said in a brief statement.The Justice and Development Party (AKP) pushed through the constitutional amendment on the headscarf in February. That act was the principal argument advanced by Turkey's chief prosecutor when he asked the Constitutional Court in March to ban the AKP on charges that it is seeking to install an Islamist regime.Thursday's ruling was largely seen as a signal the court will go against the AKP when it decides whether to outlaw it and bar 71 party officials, among them Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, from politics. That verdict is expected later this year.The ruling led to Erdogan to cancel his programme in Istanbul and return to Ankara Friday for an emergency meeting of the AKP leadership, a party official said.The PM has also scrapped a trip to Switzerland Saturday to watch Turkey's first Euro 2008 match, against Portugal.He has not yet made a public comment on the verdict."The decision significantly strengthens the prosecutors' arguments" in the closure case against the AKP, constitutional law professor Ulku Azrak commented."It is a historic ruling... It has demonstrated that secularism is Turkey's state ideology," veteran politician and jurist Husamettin Cindoruk said.A senior AKP member slammed the court for overstepping its jurisdiction, limited to examining only whether constitutional amendments are procedurally flawed."This is interfering with both democracy and parliament's legislative authority," Bekir Bozdag said.The opposition Republican People's Party, which had petitioned the court to scrap the amendment, welcomed the ruling, while the Nationalist Action Party, which had backed the law, warned of "deepening polarisation in Turkish society along the lines of faith."The Turkish military, a staunch defender of the secular system, lent support to the court.Army chief Yasar Buyukanit urged respect for the ruling, while air forces commander Aydogan Babaoglu said any other decision would have been "abnormal," CNN Turk television reported.The AKP, the moderate offshoot of a banned Islamist party, pushed the headscarf amendment through parliament, arguing that the ban-imposed after a 1980 military coup-violates freedom of conscience and the right to education.But hardline secularists-among them the army, the judiciary and academics-see the headscarf as a symbol of defiance against secularism.They say that easing the restrictions in universities will increase social pressure on women to cover up and pave the way for the lifting of a similar ban in high schools and government offices.The Constitutional Court has in the past twice ruled against moves to lift the on-campus ban on the headscarf. The ban has also been upheld by Turkey's top administrative court and the European Court of Human Rights.The AKP rejects charges of being anti-secular but has been under attack from the secularist camp ever since it first came to power in 2002. The party was re-elected for a second term in July with nearly 47 percent of the vote, drawing mainly on its economic success.It says it has disowned its Islamist roots and embraced Turkey's bid to join the European Union, but maintains that rigid interpretations of secularism in Turkey breach religious freedoms.Opponents argue that moves such as the headscarf amendment and a ban on alcohol sales in restaurants run by AKP municipalities, coupled with rhetoric in favour of broader religious freedoms, indicate a secret Islamist agenda.Many fear that outlawing the AKP, a coalition of religious conservatives, pro-business liberals and mainstream centre-right politicians, would throw Turkey into political chaos as the party still enjoys solid public support in the face of a weak and fractured opposition.As in the days of Noah.......
