Will Turkey's ruling party be banned?

Question: Will Turkey's ruling party be banned?

Answer: It's definitely a possibility. In the wake of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lead a lifting of the ban on headscarves in universities -- and a charge by his party, the AKP, to ban booze in restaurants -- the 11-member Constitutional Court agreed at the end of March 2008 to hear the case charging that the AKP (Justice and Development party) is dragging Turkey away from secularism. Chief prosecutor of the High Court of Appeals Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya wants the party banned for "anti-secular activities" -- and such a move wouldn't be unprecedented, as two other parties got the ax on the same charges in 1998 and 2001.

Yalcinkaya asked the court to keep 71 people, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, from participating in politics for five years. Their Justice and Development party holds 330 seats in the 550-seat parliament. If the AKP -- formed in 2001 in response to the banning of an Islamist movement -- is banned, its members could form a new political party.

It's not just the February 2008 lifting of the ban headscarves in universities that raised the prosecutor's ire, but an alcohol ban in restaurants run by AKP municipalities, which he claims shows that the party is truly attempting to establish Sharia law in the Turkish republic.

The trial is expected to last about six months, one of which the AKP will get to present a defense. What will come forth may split a lot of Turks, but in the end it's a conversation that Turks need to have. Do you keep a party that has been democratically elected, even if they stray from the country's strictly secular foundation?