TURKEY: The Shaggy-Dog Case

For months the Turkish army regime has labored like so many busy Hollywood stagehands. They were preparing a vast public trial of the civilians they ousted from power, President Celal Bayar and Premier Adnan Menderes. Last week, on the fortress island of Yassiada in the Sea of Marmara, in a converted basketball court where Turkish recruits once sweated and exercised, the show began.

Doggy Details. First in the dock was ex-President Bayar, 77, still haggard from his suicide attempt last month. Bayar, onetime comrade-in-arms of the late great Kemal Ataturk, was charged with treason for ruling dictatorially in violation of...