Eyes on Islamist Cases After MGK
At Wednesday's MGK meeting the president, the prime minister and military leaders agreed on the need for a speedy purge of Islamists and separatists who are in the civil service.
Analysts said that the decision would intensify sensitivities towards Islamist movements, but that it was too early to make predictions about how early to make predictions about how the recent MGK decisions would affect ongoing procedures against Erbakan and Gülen.
Turkish prosecutors on Wednesday issued an order for Erbakan to surrender to authorities in order to serve a one year jail sentence imposed on him for provoking hatred. Erbakan, who has a last right of appeal, hadn't made any moves as of this Friday.
In a legal procedure, the prosecutor's office will send the order to Erbakan via the police. After this order, his lawyers will have the right to appeal to the court for postponement of the sentence.
Earlier in June, the Court of Cassation upheld the prison sentence, barring Erbakan from active politics indefinitely. Erbakan, 72, led Turkey's Islamic movement for nearly three decades. He was banned from politics for five years in 1998 when the RP was shut down for anti-secular activities.
Erbakan was convicted on charges of violating Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) in a speech he made during a political campaign for the 1995 elections.
Article 312 covers the crime of "inciting people to hatred and enmity on the basis of ethnic, religious, regional or sectarian differences."
Meanwhile, Gülen is also in the hot seat. Ankara State Security Court (DGM) Public Prosecutor Nuh Mete Yüksel, who has been working on an investigation against Gülen for almost a year at Ankara No.2 DGM, has issued an arrest warrant for Gülen.
Yüksel has charged Gülen with setting up organizations intended to divide the country, in breach of TCK Articles 312 and 313.
Gülen, known as the founder of scores of schools both in Turkey and abroad, us undergoing medical treatment in the United States. Turkey hasn't officially asked for Gülen's extradition and it is expected that the United States will make its next move with caution.
Speaking at an Association of Diplomatic Correspondents' lunch, U.S. Ambassador Mark Parris said that if Turkey prepares a suitable case and if the crime Gülen is charged with is also accepted as a crime in the United Sates, then Gülen's extradition might be possible.
Apart from Gülen and Erbakan, there are other ongoing cases targeting Islamists in several of Turkey's courts. The Virtue Party (FP) is believed to be the successor of the defunct RP and there is an ongoing closure case concerning the RP at the Constitutional Court to that very same effect.
The history of the secular MGK's struggle with political Islam goes back several years. The military-dominated MGK began a clampdown on political Islam in 1997 when it put pressure on Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan to resign and hounded his government, the country's first Islamist-led administration, from office. Erbakan and his RP were banned from politics the following year. 08.26.2000
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