Turkish PM Calls For Stronger Secular System
May 20, 2006
Demonstration at the Ataturk memorial in Ankara (epa)
Erdogan said all efforts should be made to strengthen democracy, secularism, and the rule of law.
The May 17 attack on the country's highest administrative court left one judge dead and four others injured. The suspected gunman, a lawyer with Islamist sympathies, said his actions were intended to punish the court for upholding a ban on headscarves in public institutions and universities.
The incident has sparked anti-Islamist and antigovernment protests.
Erdogan's government has been accused of emboldening religious extremists by voicing its opposition to the headscarf ban and through its frequent harsh criticism of court rulings.
(AFP)