Judge shot dead in attack on Turkish court
A Turkish judge has been shot dead and several other people have been wounded after a lawyer opened fire during a meeting in Ankara’s highest court.Local media said five other judges were hurt in the shooting, which the country’s leaders condemned as an attack on its secular establishment.
“The target of the attack is the constitution as well as the Council of State … Turkey is being dragged towards a very dangerous place,” Deniz Baykal, the opposition leader, said.
The court, the Council of State, has faced fierce criticism in Islamist circles for hardline implementation of secularist laws such as a headscarf ban in universities and state offices.
Turkey is far from a perfect country, but compared to many other Muslim nations it is a model of liberalism and secularism. I believe that this sort of violence represents a clear threat to that tradition. This is not something we should take lightly.
