Turkeys Constitutional Court on July 30 averted a potentially explosive political crisis when its judges rejected an attempt by the State Prosecutor to ban the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The ban would have prohibited 71 senior members of the AKP from taking part in politics for five years and would have effectively brought down the government. AKP leader and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Turkeys President Abdullah Gül were among the AKP leadership facing exclusion from political life. The ban, if enacted, also would have negated the will of 47 percent of Turkish voters who supported the party and would have dashed the countrys hopes of entering the European Union.

Turkeys newly-elected president, Abdullah Gul, is the first head of state with an Islamist past in the 83-year history of the secular republic, and public opinion is sharply divided over commitment to the countrys basic tenets.

A decision by the European Court of Human Rights to uphold a ban on Muslim headscarves in Turkish universities placed doubts on November 11 on the governments plans to scrap the prohibition.

A bid to offer private schooling to gifted children in Turkey has put the staunchly secular president on a collision course with the government after he said the new law might play into the hands of Islamists.

Young women wearing Islamic-style headscarves have to go through a cubicle when they enter the gate to Ankara Universitys Divinity Faculty. When they reappear, on their way to class, they have unveiled or covered their headscarf with a wig.

TURKEYS NOW-BANNED JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT PARTY LEADER TAYYIP ERDOGAN.

Turkish prosecutors have demanded up to three years in jail for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a rising politician with an Islamic background, for alleged fraud in public tenders, Anatolia news agency reported Friday.

Turkeys Islamist movement suffered a split Friday when conservatives within the outlawed pro-Islamic Virtue party set up their own party.

Turkeys constitutional court on Friday outlawed the pro-Islamic Virtue Party for anti-secular activities, but limited the electoral side-effects of the move by letting most of its deputies keep their parliamentary seats.