The country's highest court said Wednesday it would provide its reasoning for last week's verdict in which it annulled the law that lifted a headscarf ban. The promise came a day after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the constitutional court of overriding parliament and threatening national stability.

In his first reaction to the June 6 verdict, Erdogan on Tuesday demanded reasoning for the ruling that revoked the constitutional amendment, which he criticized as ideologically-motivated.

"Acting in negligence of these constitutional provisions will lead to a system failure, a clash between the [legislative, judicial and executive] powers," he told his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) parliamentary bloc.

Four-fifths of parliament in February voted in favor of a constitutional amendment that lifted a strict ban on female university students wearing the headscarf on campus, a promise the AKP had made to its electorate when 16.5 million people voted for the party in the 2002 elections.

Erdogan, whose wife wears a headscarf, warned that no power, including the highest court, can override the will of parliament.

"Legislative powers belong to the elected parliament," he said. "No one has the right to put itself in the place of the lawmaker."

Independent Turkish legal experts say the court's verdict is not legally sound, because the court does not have the authority to deal with the actual content of the law, but to assess how the bill was passed, or overseeing the necessary of a two-thirds majority needed in parliament.

Therefore, many believe it was a political decision by stringent secularists to pave the way for banning the AKP itself, which is facing a court case to ban it on the grounds that the party violates Turkey's secular system.

Since its establishment in 1961, the constitutional court has illegalized 26 parties, and analysts expect the court verdict in August would add the ruling party to its list of victims.

Thus, Erdogan on Tuesday received parliamentary support to keep the legislature open throughout the summer until the court rules on the AKP. The house normally takes a summer recess from July 1 to Oct. 1.

The issue of the headscarf is but a symbol of a growing dispute between the ruling party and the secularists – who dominate the military, judiciary, much of the media and academics – over the identity of the country, where restrictions on wearing it date back to the founding of secular Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923.

The campus ban was imposed after a military coup in 1980 in an attempt to clear out religious extremism, but it has forced many women in this Muslim country to either abandon their education or hide their headscarves under wigs to attend classes.

The government says abolishing the no-headscarf policy is part of democratic reforms to advance free speech and minority rights, and has the support of the European Union that Turkey is seeking to join.

The secularists, however, see the headscarf and the AKP as shaking the very foundations on which modern Turkey was established after the fall of the conservative Ottoman Empire at the start of the 20th century. They fear this would lead to the Islamization of the country.

Analysts say the constitutional court's headscarf ruling was a political blow to the AKP and a clear message that it was on the verge of banning the party, virtually tying its hands before an upcoming decision against it.

They add that while the parliament can theoretically annul the headscarf verdict, the legislature that the AKP dominates is paralyzed due to the court case it is facing.

Turkish commentators warn that banning the party, of which President Abdullah Gul is also a member, will create a political turbulence the country would rather avoid when it is aiming at membership in the EU, which has often criticized Turkey's harsh judiciary for obstructing democratic freedoms.

The AKP has already begun to mobilize its many supporters to confront the expected ban to call for early elections and possibly for a referendum to vote on a new constitution that would strip the court of its authority.

And the military, which backs the judiciary, has historically proven it is ready to defend Turkey's secularity through force, which could plunge the country into a violent crisis and an instability that Erdogan has warned against.