January 24, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 14, 1429

ANKARA, Jan 23: Turkey’s government pressed ahead on Wednesday with plans to lift a ban on headscarf in universities, setting the stage for a potential clash with the powerful secular elite.

The headscarf is a highly sensitive issue, pitting the Islamist-rooted AK Party government against secular figures such as judges and army generals who see the garment as a threat to the separation of state and religion.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a practising Muslim, said his AK Party would propose easing a strict ban on the headscarf in universities without waiting for parliament to approve a new constitution.

“We don’t have any intention or aim to wait. It has to happen as soon as possible,” he told reporters.

The centre-right, pro-business AK Party hopes its proposed amendments to the constitution will be acceptable to the opposition nationalist MHP, which already backs a limited easing of the ban. MHP support would allow the AK Party to pass its amendments with the required majority to avoid a referendum on the changes.

Last year, the headscarf issue triggered early parliamentary elections following mass secularist rallies and tough army warnings.

Financial markets, sensitive to tensions between the government and secular elite, are closely following the issue.

Last week, Turkey’s staunchly secularist judiciary stepped up its campaign to block the government's “unconstitutional” moves to end the ban, saying they would harm “social peace”.

“The risk is that the AK Party's hasty move to lift the ban could cause the military to weigh into the debate - a step that would upset the delicate political balance that has prevailed since the July 22 elections,” Wolfango Piccoli of Eurasia Group, a London-based political risk consultancy, said in a statement.

The powerful military, which views itself as the ultimate guarantor of Turkey’s secular order, has not yet commented but it is unlikely to welcome the latest moves.

POPULAR SUPPORT: Erdogan, whose wife and daughters cover their heads, is under pressure from grassroots supporters to act swiftly after his AK Party's re-election.

An increasingly wealthy middle class is emerging in Turkey and wants to practise its religion more freely.Mr Erdogan has long argued that scrapping the ban is a matter of freedom of expression.

Opinion polls show a majority of Turks support relaxing the headscarf ban in universities.

According to a 1989 decision by the Turkish Constitutional Court, women are forbidden from entering university campuses while wearing the headscarf. Wearing the headscarf in public offices is also prohibited.

The AK Party also proposes extending the reform to include “public services areas”.

Main opposition party leader Deniz Baykal said the proposed changes would create a major constitutional crisis.

“The headscarf issue is more than just a problem of a group of girls deciding freely what to wear in universities. It is a discussion, a pursuit about the future of Turkey’s constitutional order,” Baykal said.—Reuters