TURKEY: DEMOCRACY NOT AT RISK, PRIME MINISTER ERDOGAN SAYS

(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, JULY 4 - The political disputes Turkey
has been going through for months will be resolved and democracy
in the country is not at risk, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
said today in Ankara, speaking to representatives of his party
Justice and Development Party (AKP, pro-Islamic). The Prime
Minister is currently engaged in a court battle to save from
closing AKP, which has been accused of anti secular activity.
A possible closing of the party and a five-year ban to
participate in politics on 71 of its members - among them
Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul - should lead to early
elections in September but, probably, also to a period of
political and economic uncertainty for Turkey.
''I want to repeat once again that in Turkey the democratic
system with its institutions and regulations functions in
accordance with the law. Turkey has been through such painful
periods before and has solved its problems with its internal
dynamics. There is no need to worry,'' the Prime Minister said
in an address broadcast on television. (ANSAmed).