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| Turkish PM attacks proposed ban | Turkish PM attacks proposed ban |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised a proposal to ban his ruling AK Party as being against the "national will". | Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised a proposal to ban his ruling AK Party as being against the "national will". |
| He was speaking after Turkey's chief prosecutor asked the country's Constitutional Court to ban the party, accusing it of anti-secular activities. | He was speaking after Turkey's chief prosecutor asked the country's Constitutional Court to ban the party, accusing it of anti-secular activities. |
| Turkey's secularist constitution does not allow any religious influence on the operation of the state. | Turkey's secularist constitution does not allow any religious influence on the operation of the state. |
| The AK Party, which has Islamist roots, won last year's general elections. | The AK Party, which has Islamist roots, won last year's general elections. |
| In announcing his indictment, prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya said he believed there was enough evidence to show the party had contravened Turkey's secular constitution. | |
| He also revealed the party had been under investigation for six months. | |
| Headscarf controversy | |
| "The action taken yesterday is not aimed at the Justice and Development Party [AKP] but the will of the nation," Mr Erdogan said. | |
| "No one can say that [AKP supporters] are a focal point of anti-secular activities," he added. | |
| The AKP is already locked in a battle with Turkey's secular elite, backed by the powerful military, over recent changes to a ban on wearing headscarves. | |
| The Constitutional Court is reviewing an appeal by the main pro-secular opposition party on the validity of parliament's constitutional amendments in February to allow women to wear Islamic headscarves at universities. | |
| The AKP has argued that the headscarf ban unfairly bars large numbers of girls from higher education in a nation where about 66% of women wear the scarf. | |
| Many secularists in the country equate the wearing of the headscarf with political Islam. | |
| The AKP has its roots in a banned Islamist party. | |
| But the government of Prime Minister Erdogan - which is negotiating for Turkey to join the EU - has insisted that the party's political views have changed. |