Cicek to brief Erdogan on AKP's Oral defense

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek, who is set this Thursday to present the ruling Justice and Development Party's oral defense before the Constitutional Court against a closure indictment, today will brief Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on preparations for the defense. The AKP's oral defense will reportedly stress that the AKP espouses a contemporary understanding of secularism, one differing from that of Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, who filed the indictment. The defense will underline that a contemporary understanding of secularism requires ensuring and preserving freedom of religion and conscience as well as a separation between religion and state. The defense will also refer to the recent acquittal of Fethullah Gulen against charges that Foreign Ministry circulars on Gulen schools violate the principle of secularism.