Turkey's top court to ask prosecutors to file charges against prime minister

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised interview Tuesday that a decision by the court to cancel a presidential vote earlier this month was a "disgrace" to the justice system.

"Yes, we will appeal" to the prosecutor's office to file criminal charges against the prime minister, Chief Justice Tulay Tugcu said Wednesday, in response to a question from a reporter about whether the court planned legal action.

Tugcu said Erdogan had engaged in verbal attacks against the court that "exceeded the boundaries of criticism and respect, in ever increasing doses."

"They are directly making our court a target," Tugcu said.

Although it is a crime in Turkey to insult state institutions, the move is unlikely to lead to Erdogan's prosecution. The prime minister, like all lawmakers in Turkey, has legal immunity which only Parliament can lift. His party commands a majority in the legislature.

The quarrel, however, has again exposed the growing rift between the Islamic-rooted government and Turkey's secular establishment, which includes the judiciary.

Erdogan was criticizing the court's decision earlier this month to invalidate a first-round presidential vote in parliament on the grounds that a quorum was not present.

The country's fiercely secular establishment opposed the Islamic-rooted ruling party's candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. Opposition lawmakers boycotted the vote.

Before the court ruling to annul the vote, the military had posted a statement on its Web site hinting that it was prepared to intervene to safeguard Turkey's secular system.

"This is a very unfortunate decision, it is a disgrace," Erdogan said Tuesday of the court's decision. "This decision was given by force."

Erdogan's government has since called early general elections for July 22 and is trying to change the constitution to allow the people rather than parliament to elect the president.

Earlier this month, Erdogan criticized the court's decision, saying it was "a bullet fired at democracy." He later backed away from that statement and said his words were aimed at the secular opposition and not the Constitutional Court.

Last year, a gunman burst into Turkey's highest administrative court and shot at judges — killing one of them — allegedly angered by the judges' ruling on Islamic head scarfs, which are banned on university campuses.

The judges said criticism of the court's decision by Islamic circles had made them a target. The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune/