If it takes brief visits to both extremes to plot a middle course, then 2008 provided Turkey with an opportunity to write the manual for the rest of the world. Still riding high from a decisive election victory in the previous year, the ruling Justice and development Party (AKP) was faced with decimation when the Constitutional Court was called to rule on accusations the party had been indulging in practices that breached the sacred separation of state and Islam. The AKP had pushed through parliament a measure to allow female university students to wear headscarves, a measure that infuriated the staunchly secularist establishment (including the army). Had the most severe penalty been imposed in the event of conviction, President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and around 70 of the deputies would have been banned from politics, not only bringing down the government but also destroying the party. In
