According to media reports the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) drafts their defense against the closure case by the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals, in which it is claimed that AKP is “the center of the anti-secular activities."

The Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya opened the case on March 14. The Constitutional Court accepted it on March 31 and sent the indictment to the party.

It is stated in the 98 page long text of AKP’s preliminary defense that  “we have never had a secret agenda other than what we have explained and done.”

According to the news reported by NTVMSNBC, the text emphasizes the unitary, secular and democratic state and states that AKP’s fundamental political mission is based on these ideas.

The text also expresses that AKP is not the center of anti-secular activities, but on the contrary, it is a movement that is working towards giving secularism a much larger social base, adding that the case damages the legal system in Turkey.

“The idea that the legal system is becoming politicized hurts the feeling of trust the citizens have towards the law. This harms our democracy. The parliament is the heart of our democracy and the political parties are the arteries that supply it with blood. This case damages our country and nation. This case means destruction of the political and economic stability, impoverishment of the country and the people, and loss of time.”

Stating that the case is not “legal but political”, AKP’s defense text has a large section that critiques “the political and ideological language” of the indictment. 

In another section of the preliminary defense, the freedom of a political party and the restrictions imposed on it are explained. Continuing, the text also adds that it would be better if a political party was eliminated through a political race rather than banned by a judicial ruling and that it can be closed down only when it resorts to violence as a political tool and defends it. (EÜ/TB)