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Turkey’s apex court on Thursday ruled to annul a Feb. 9 constitutional amendment spearheaded by the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party to lift the ban on women wearing headscarves in universities. In a 9-2 vote, the 11-judge panel of the Constitutional Court ruled for the reinstatement of the ban on the headscarf. This verdict is an indicator of how the Turkish Supreme Court likely will weigh in on another far more important case filed March 14 by Public Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya calling for shutting down the governing party.
The court’s move to overturn the law (which had passed in Parliament by a 411-103 vote) suggests it will be receptive to Yalcinkaya’s accusations that the AK Party is attempting to subvert the secular nature of the Turkish republic. Therefore, there is a strong likelihood that the AK Party will join the graveyard of defunct Turkish parties. We do not rule out the possibility of some type of compromise in which the party survives in some form, however.
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