Fazilet prepares for a fight

Rusen Cakir


       Virtue Party members didn't look to be caring much about the trial
       opened against their party. They used to say that it is not possible to ban
       their party because of the recent amendment in the Law for the Political
       Parties and the steps taken in the EU membership process. But as the General
       Staff crisis broke out, the deputies one by one admitted that they really
       worry about the risk that their party could be banned.
       Ankara deputy Cemil Cicek who took the responsibility of his party defence
       in the Constitutional Court considered the current situation as a traffic
       accident and showed the only solution as the resignment of the party leader
       Recai Kutan.
       Different sections in the party also support Kutan's resignment for some
       various reasons. Cicek's main supporters are the reformists, who acted
       together with Kutan in the first days of the Virtue Party.
       Reformists want to be strong in the coming congress, by being among the
       leads of the chorus that demands the resignment of Kutan. But everyone is
       nearly sure that remote leader of the party Erbakan, would not let this
       happen.
       The strategy of the traditional wing on the other hand is not the exaggerate
       the event. It is certain that serious fights can break out as soon as the
       crisis is overcome. Erbakan will be the one to decide on the issue as it was
       before. Erbakan would either do not touch anything hoping to found a new
       party or make a deep intervention. If such developments occur, new
       resignments would be on the agenda.