BRUSSELS (AFP)
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Monday that he saw no "justification" for banning Turkey's governing AKP party, which he said was only warranted in cases of violence.
Rehn said he would brief the full European Commission on the case on Wednesday, saying it exposed a "systemic error" in the EU candidate country's constitution that may require an amendment.
"In particular, the prohibition or dissolution of political parties is a far-reaching measure which should be used with the utmost restraint," Rehn said after Turkey's top court ordered the party's trial for anti-secular activity.
"Such a measure may only be justified in the case of parties which advocate the use of violence or use violence as a political means to overthrow the democratic constitutional order," he said in a statement, according to the Council of Europe.
"I do not see any such justification for this case," he added.
The 11 judges of Turkey's Constitutional Court unanimously decided that they could hear the case against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) filed by the country's top prosecutor on March 14.
"In EU member states the kind of political issues referred to in this case are debated in the parliament and decided through the ballot box, not in court rooms," Rehn said.
Although Rehn did not openly renew a weekend warning that Turkey's EU negotiations could be disrupted by the case, he said: "There is much at stake in the handling of this issue."
"Turkey needs to devote all its energies to undertaking long-awaited reforms that will benefit the Turkish people and advance Turkey's integration into the EU," he said. "This case should not distract attention from those reforms." |
