ANKARA, June 5: Turkey’s top court ruled on Thursday that headscarves could not be allowed at universities because that would violate secularism.

The decision is a defeat for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-oriented government, which tried to allow the scarves at universities as a matter of personal and religious freedom.

But the Constitutional Court verdict issued on Thursday said constitutional amendments that were passed by Parliament in February violated secular principles.

The headscarf issue is an explosive one for Turkey, where the government is locked in a power struggle with secular groups that have support from the military and other state institutions.

The verdict is likely to bode ill for the government. Turkey’s chief prosecutor is seeking to disband the ruling party because it is “the focal point of anti-secular activities” in a separate case at the Constitutional Court. He has cited attempts to allow headscarves at universities as a case in point.

Many see the headscarf as an emblem of political Islam, and consider any attempt to allow it in schools as an attack against modern Turkey’s secular laws.

There was no immediate comment from the government on the ruling. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said the government would like to see the court’s reasoning before saying anything.

A brief statement from the court said the amendments were annulled because they were in violation of some articles of the Constitution, including one that states that “The Turkish Republic is a secular state.” and another that says that altering the secular nature of the state “cannot even be proposed.”

Onur Oymen, a senior lawmaker of the opposition Republican People Party, said the verdict spelled the end of such amendments.—AP