ANKARA: Turkey's chief prosecutor warned Wednesday against lifting a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities, fuelling a row that has long polarised the mainly Muslim but secular nation. The warning followed an initiative by the ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) to seek a parliamentary compromise to abolish the ban, after the head of the secularist main opposition also expressed a desire to resolve the problem. “Allowing the use of the headscarf (in universities) would constitute a breach of the principle of secularism because it would base a public law arrangement on religious grounds,” the office of chief prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya said in a statement. Turkish courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) have both ruled that wearing the headscarf on campus “is not protected as part of freedom of religion and is not compatible with the principle of secularism,” it said. “Statements to the contrary by political circles are motivated by political interests,” it charged, warning that “all political parties will be responsible” if existing principles were breached. The statement came shortly after AKP officials started talks with opposition lawmakers in a bid to hammer out a compromise to end the ban. The AKP, backed by secular liberals, insists the ban flouts freedom of conscience and the right to education. Opponents argue that easing the restriction in universities will increase social pressure on women to cover up and pave the way for the lifting of similar bans in schools and government offices. The head of a board overseeing Turkish universities effectively relaxed the ban earlier this month by telling professors not to kick out veiled students. On Wednesday, he said veiled women would also be allowed to sit university entry exams. Much to the AKP's ire, the constitutional court scrapped a government-sponsored amendment in 2008 to let women sport the headscarf on campus. Shortly afterwards, the AKP narrowly escaped being outlawed for anti-secular activities in a court case in which the party's headscarf policy figured as a key prosecution arguement. In 2005, the Strasbourg-based ECHR ruled that the ban was not a violation of fundamental freedoms and could be necessary to protect Turkey's secular order against extremist movements. – Agence France
