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Ankara: Turkey's ruling AK Party held an emergency meeting on Friday after the top court overturned a government-led reform which lifted a ban on Muslim headscarves at universities.
Analysts said Thursday's ruling by the Constitutional Court was the most serious setback for the AK Party since it came to power in 2002 and posed a serious threat to its survival.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan chaired the AK Party meeting, which was held even as hundreds of women in headscarves protested in several cities.
Hidden agenda fears
The headscarf ruling will play a central role in a separate case that seeks to close the ruling AK Party for anti-secular activities, and ban 71 members, including Erdogan and the president, from belonging to a party for five years.
The secularist establishment, including army generals and judges, suspects the AK Party of harbouring a hidden agenda.
Mustafa Unal, a columnist for religious-leaning daily Zaman, wrote: "This verdict will affect the closure case negatively."
The Hurriyet newspaper said the AK Party executive was expected to discuss various options to deal with the crisis, including the option of calling an early parliamentary election.
Analysts fear reforms in the European Union candidate country will be put on hold as the AK Party fights for survival.
Analysts expect the AK Party to be outlawed, although some say the court could decide to punish AK party leaders given that forming a new party would be easy under Turkish electoral law.
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