HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------Turkey Bars Politician From Election
By SUZAN FRASER
.c The Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkey's most popular politician, the leader of an Islamic-oriented party, was barred Friday from running in November elections, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The High Electoral Board ruled that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the head of the Justice and Development Party, cannot run on Nov. 3 because he was convicted of reading a poem that the court said incited religious hatred.
Turkish laws disqualify candidates with criminal records from running for office.
Also barred from running were former pro-Islamic premier Necmettin Erbakan, the leader of the country's pro-Kurdish party, Murat Bozlak, and the most prominent Turkish human rights activist, Akin Birdal.
Erdogan's party which has religious origins and champions the poor, tops most opinion polls in this staunchly secular but mainly Muslim country where voters are frustrated with mainstream parties they blame for Turkey's economic woes.
A brief statement from the Higher Electoral Board said the four were ``not eligible to be elected to parliament.'' It said the decisions against Erbakan and Erdogan were taken by a majority of votes, while the board voted unanimously against Bozlak and Birdal.
Erdogan's party tops most opinion polls in this mainly Muslim country where voters are frustrated with the staunchly secular government and mainstream parties they blame for Turkey's economic woes.
Erdogan was expected to continue leading the party, though another party official will probably head the party in parliament or even assume the premiership should the party succeed in elections.
Erdogan indicated Wednesday that he would continue campaigning for his party. It was not clear if the board's ruling would trigger a surge in sympathy votes or hurt the party.
``I will run through the roads of my beloved Anatolia and ask my people to vote,'' Erdogan said.
Newspapers have suggested that Abdullah Gul, Erdogan's deputy who is considered a moderate, may assume the party leadership. Bulent Arinc, another top party official, is also a strong contender.
A recent opinion poll indicated Erdogan has far more popular support than any other politician in Turkey.
Erdogan, the former mayor of Istanbul, was jailed for four months in 1999 for reciting a poem at a political rally that said: ``Minarets are our bayonets, domes are our helmets, mosques are our barracks, believers are our soldiers.''
A court ruled that the poem incited hatred along religious lines.
Earlier this month, a court in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir lifted the political ban against Erdogan, citing changes in Turkish law. A higher appeals court later overturned that ruling.
Erdogan is also charged with illegally accumulating wealth and rigging state contracts when he was mayor of Istanbul, along with new accusations of inciting religious hatred. Erdogan has denied all the charges, which he insists are politically motivated.
Many politicians and some in the country's military say most of Erdogan's party colleagues belonged to a political group that was banned last year for opposing Turkey's secular regime.
Erdogan says his party has moderated its views, and now favors entry into the European Union. Turkish Islamists had previously criticized the EU as a force for Western and Christian imperialism.
Erbakan, who led Turkey's Islamic movement for three decades, was banned from politics for five years in 1998 after a court closed his Welfare Party for violating this mainly Muslim country's secular laws.
Erbakan insisted the ruling only prohibited him from joining political parties and applied to run as an independent.
Both Bozlak and Birdal served prison terms for calling for a peaceful and not a military solution to the 15-year old war between autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels and Turkish troops.
09/20/02 11:13 EDT
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