DUBAI, January 17: Turkey's constitutional court has dissolved the pro-Islamist Welfare Party for alleged anti-secular activities and banned its leader, former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, from politics for five years. Chief Justice Ahmed Necdet Sezer said in Ankara that the decision was based on evidence of Welfare's actions against the principles of the secular republic. "The Welfare Party was closed for its activities against the secular regime under Articles 68 and 69 of the Constitution," he said.Erbakan, 71, at a separate press conference, called the decision a "serious judicial error" and said he would take the matter to the European Court of Justice. "Our cause will grow stronger, and Welfare will come to power alone one day," he declared. His party had emerged as the single-largest party in the last general elections in December, 1995, and Erbakan took over as modern Turkey's first Islamist Prime Minister in June, 1996.
Meanwhile, a top Islamist MP Lutfu Esengun said in Ankara that the
Welfare party, outlawed in court for Islamist activism, is to regroup under a new name, but without its banned leader. He said it was not yet clear who would head the new Islamist party. "A new party, a new formation with a new leader, will be formed in line with the current laws," Islamist former cabinet member Lutfu Esengun said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
