Word: secularist
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...case has paralyzed Turkey since March, when chief prosecutor Abdurrahman Sarikaya filed an indictment urging that the AKP be banned for anti-secularist activities. The main item of evidence he used to back the claim was a government move earlier this year to lift the ban on female students wearing headscarves at universities. The headscarf issue is almost irrationally divisive - for the pious, it's a matter of religious freedom; for the secularists, it symbolizes a political movement they insist threatens their lifestyle. The government's approach to the issue - introducing the change overnight, with no public debate - was widely...
...trial had been widely seen as the final chapter in an ongoing showdown between the AKP and the secularist establishment, particularly in the military and the courts. A military attempt to stare down Erdogan last year over the nomination of his own party's Abdullah Gul for President backfired: Erdogan called snap elections and was returned to power with 47% of the vote, an even greater margin than from when he was first elected. This time, it was the turn of the judiciary to lead the charge for secularism...
...puzzle may never be solved. Critics of the Ergenekon investigation say that while aspects of the indictment may be relevant, the government is using it to avenge a bid by the secularist establishment - namely the courts and military - to close them down for alleged Islamism. Meanwhile, many supporters of the investigation argue that the case could finally rein in ultra-nationalist elements, which have long seen themselves as beyond the law's reach, and thus mark a crucial juncture in Turkey's democratization...
...elections last July, it has held on to its position as the country's first single-party government in decades. The AKP has also been careful not to offer up the radical political Islamic rhetoric that has put previous pro-religious parties in direct conflict with Turkey's secularist traditions and laws. What's more, it was under the AKP's leadership that Turkey finally began talks to join the European Union, and its economic program is aggressively liberal. (Though the same can't be said of the AKP's social policies...
...judges are expected to reach a decision by next week - a verdict requires 7 out of 11 votes. They are largely a staunchly secularist group, with an aversion to the politics of Erdogan and company. But the judges are also bound to weigh the evidence on legal grounds and decide whether the government's actions, regarding the headscarf and other matters, warrant such drastic action...