ANKARA (Agencies)
Tens of thousands of secularist Turks rallied in Ankara on Saturday against the ruling AK Party, which is facing a high court challenge by a prosecutor who wants it shut down for alleged Islamist activities.
Demonstrators waving red Turkish flags and pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, chanted slogans against the AK Party and the European Union, criticized for meddling in Turkey's domestic politics.
Protesters also objected to the EU and its support for the government. The government is pushing for Turkey to join the bloc, but the EU's popularity has fallen among the public since the start of accession talks in 2005.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was in Istanbul on Saturday at the end of a three-day trip, during which he urged the Turkish court to apply European standards in the case against the AK Party and called for democratic reforms.
"We don't want the EU interfering," said Sibel Varol, a 35-year-old housewife who came to protest from Istanbul.
"The EU is not our master."
Several demonstrations have been organized across Turkey against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) over the past year. Opponents accuse it of aiming to advance its Islamist ambitions under the guise of improving religious freedoms.
Critics point in particular to the abolition of a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities and the prohibition of alcohol in restaurants run by AKP municipalities.
The AKP is also currently the subject of a court case seeking to ban the party for allegedly undermining Turkey's secular order in favor of an Islamist regime.
It rejects the charges, saying that it is committed to the separation of state and religion, but argues that a rigid interpretation of secularism in Turkey often violates freedom of conscience.
Turkish TV put the numbers at roughly 20,000 people, with many coming from faraway cities. The protest lasted three hours and finished without incident. |
