Turkey opposition party banned

ANKARA, Turkey (CNN) -- The Constitutional Court has banned the Islamic Virtue Party, Turkey's leading opposition party.

Virtue had 102 seats of Turkey's 550-seat parliament.

This is not the first time the political movement has faced closure by the Constitutional Court.

In 1998, the Welfare Party was shut down on the grounds that it was engaged in fundamentalist activity and was violating the secular principles of the Turkish constitution.

Most of the deputies of the Welfare Party kept their seats in parliament, and simply formed a new party under a new name with a new party program. In 1999 elections it secured nearly a fifth of the seats in the parliament.

The chief prosecutor had indicted the constitutional party on two grounds: That the Virtue Party was merely a continuation of the Welfare Party and that it violated the constitution's secular principles.

In its verdict on Friday, the constitutional court threw out the first accusation by the chief prosecutor.

But it accepted the charge that the Virtue Party was violating the fundamentals of the secular principles of the Turkish constitution, implying they were using religious symbols for political purposes.

In its decision, the court ordered the treasury to confiscate the party's funds, a strong sanction.

And it ordered that two deputies lose their seats in the parliament: Nazli Ilicak, an ardent spokeswoman for the opposition in Istanbul, and Bekir Sobaci, from Tokat.

By limiting to two the number of deputies who lost their seats, the decision does not open the door for early elections.

Government observers had feared the constitutional court could have caused more of the deputies to lose their seats, which could have meant early elections.

The result is expected to be that Turkey's Islamic opposition will split into two groups: The old guard that rallies around former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who is banned from running for office, will reform under a new name, as they did in 1998. And members of a second, younger faction that wants a new political platform more to the center of the political spectrum will go on their own.

The decision may also hurt Turkey's chances of entering the European Union, since some members of the EU are expected to complain that closing a party does not comply with democratic practice.

Journalist Sedat Ergin contributed to this story.