Turkey's constitutional court is expected to rule whether or not to hear a case aimed at closing down the country's governing AK party.
Turkey's constitutional court is expected to rule whether or not to hear a case aimed at closing down the country's governing AK party.
The chief prosecutor has filed a petition calling for the party to be closed for "anti-secular activities".
He also wants dozens of its members, including the prime minister and president, to be banned from politics.
The case revives a battle between Turkey's secularist establishment and the AK party of devout Muslims.
'Attack on democracy'
The case against the AKP runs to 162 pages: a long list of what the chief prosecutor says is proof the government has an Islamic agenda.
The main focus of his petition is the government's bid to relax the rules on the Islamic headscarf.
The AKP recently changed the constitution, so girls could cover their heads in universities.
Staunch secularists fear that is a first step to an Islamic state by a party whose leaders once espoused political Islam.
The AKP argues the case against it is an attack on democracy.
It won 47% of the vote at the last elections, and most opinion polls show strong support for lifting the ban on the headscarf.
The Constitutional Court is expected to examine the charges though, launching a legal battle that will last for many months.
That is sure to paralyse the political agenda here - to freeze a whole series of reforms - and most likely, spark an exodus of foreign investment.
The EU has expressed its concern at the case, saying it could jeopardise Turkey's ambitions of membership.
'Turkey feels unwanted in Europe'
Uniting Turkey, a large and mainly Muslim nation, with the EU is Europe's biggest peace project since World War II, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan was quoted as saying by BBC Friday
Speaking at a conference organized in Istanbul by Wilton Park for politicians and policy-makers to assess Turkey's path toward the EU, Babacan said that some EU countries were holding Turkey back out of political ill will.
"Europe should never think that Turkey has no choice," he said.
"This did not mean there was any "other alliance or group of countries [Turkey] might join forces with," Babacan added.
"But the relationship must be a two-way street, of benefit to both sides."
Last week Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan made similar comments and told students in Sarajevo that his country would have "nothing to lose" if Europe kept it out. The EU would be the loser, Erdogan said.
"Turkey has been made to feel 'unwanted' in Europe," Babacan said.
Turkey's 45-year-old commitment to integration in Europe has hit serious turbulence.
