[Analysis] News that Turkish President ‘Abdallah Gül supports the pro-Islamic government’s plans to abolish the ban on wearing headscarves at universities has angered the country’s secular opposition. The announcement by Gül, who previously served as foreign minister for the ruling Justice and Development Party, know by its Turkish acronym AK, has angered the opposition for two reasons.
Traditionally, the head of state is expected to be neutral in political disputes, and many secularists now fear that the secular legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of modern Turkey, will be further eroded by Gül’s declaration. This marks the first controversy of Gül’s presidency, which began in August 2007. Gül was elected president after several tries by his close ally, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to gain support for Gül’s nomination in parliament.
The appointment was opposed by the military—which considers itself guardian of Ataturk’s legacy—and members of the judiciary. Finally, Erdogan was forced to call early parliamentary elections, which the AK Party won by a huge margin, thus securing the necessary parliamentary support to elect Gül.
A spokesman for the secular Republican People’s Party told The Media Line that the ban had previously been upheld by the courts and that the government had no right to change the decision without changing the constitution.
Yusuf Kanli, chief columnist with the Turkey Daily News, wrote that if the government was really interested in improving freedom of expression it should revoke Penal Code Article 301. He was referring to the heavily disputed article concerned with insulting ‘Turkishness’, a vaguely defined crime often attributed to journalists who raise the subject of Turkey’s Kurdish minority.