By KUNA,
Istanbul : Turkish Chief of Staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, said Friday the constitutional court’s annulment of the parliament’s decision to allow Muslim women to wear the “hijab” (headscarf) at universities must be respected, reminding that the country was a secular, democratic state.
Yesterday, the Turkish constitutional court ruled out amendments ratified by parliament to lift the ban on wearing the headscarf at universities and educational institutions.
After two months of deliberation, the court had said that the amendments, passed by the ruling Justice and Development Party in February, were “unconstitutional.” Meanwhile, in the ruling party’s first comment, Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said the Justice and Development Party would study the basis upon which the court’s ruling was based.
As for the opposition, head of the Republican People’s Party Deniz Baykal, he said the ruling was an important practice in the judiciary history of the country.
The headscarf law has caused much controversy in Turkey with the Republican People’s Party, the country’s oldest opposition party, saying that any amendments to the law meant defiance to the secularism of the state.