Turkish PM admits scarf comments

By Jonny Dymond
BBC News, Istanbul

Women in certain state jobs are not allowed to wear the headscarf

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has admitted speaking about the possibility of lifting restrictions on the wearing of headscarves in Turkey.

But he said the German newspaper report had left out a condition he had set - that any change in the law must be backed by a broad consensus.

Mr Erdogan had previously denied making the comments to Welt am Sonntag.

But the newspaper produced e-mails showing that one of his aides had approved publishing them.

The headscarf is a sensitive topic in Turkey.

Misinterpretation

The secular republic does not allow women to wear a scarf in universities or in the civil service. It is perceived to be an encroachment of religious life into state activity.

It is a restriction which Mr Erdogan, his party and its supporters would like to relax.

But when he indicated in an interview with Welt am Sonntag that he had plans to ease the restriction, there was uproar amongst the secular establishment.

The prime minister quickly denied that he had said any such thing, only to be faced with incontrovertible proof that he had: e-mails between the editor-in-chief of the newspaper and one of the prime minister's senior advisers detailing the comments and approving publication of them.

Now the prime minister has admitted making the comments.

He sat next to the newspaper's editor at a dinner at the World Economic Forum in Davos, but he says his words were misinterpreted, and that a crucial condition of any change, that there be a broad consensus on the issue, was not mentioned by the paper.