Turkey: Timorous Optimism

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Seven months after a bloodless military coup overthrew the regime of Premier Adnan Menderes, Turkey appears at last on its way to a restoration of constitutional government. Portly General Cemal Gursel is back in charge after being laid low for a month by a slight paralysis; an appointed Constituent Assembly is gathering in Ankara this week to set up new elections in 1961.

All but unknown when he was brought out of retirement by army juniors to head their victorious junta. General Gursel, 66, is becoming Turkey's most popular figure. A simple and conservative sort, he has forbidden display of his picture alongside Ataturk's in government offices, rides about in an open Jeep through Menderes' rural strongholds, talking to the peasants almost as if they were his children.

Gursel is also unquestionably boss. He dealt with the chief challenge to his authority six weeks ago, when he summarily fired 14 younger members of the ruling junta headed by fanatical Colonel Alpaslan Turkes. These young zealots talked of setting up a thought-control office and remaking the country along authoritarian lines. They were also responsible for bringing charges of adultery and other smear-type cases against Menderes and the other fallen Democratic leaders on the ground that the Turkish peasants understood immorality but would never understand what a crime against the constitution was. When they tried to push through a draft law last November to put off elections for three years, Gursel rounded up all 14 and packed them off as "advisers" to embassies abroad. "Some of them should have been shot." Gursel told a friend. "They are lucky I'm around." Still Edgy. Gursel s victory has been welcomed by Turkey's moderates. Ex-President Ismet Inonu, still leader at 76 of the old opposition Republican People's Party, told friends he was "delighted." But in the prevailing atmosphere of uncertainty, business is at a standstill, and hoarding is widespread (1,000-lira notes have virtually disappeared from circulation). Businessmen complain that government officials are so afraid of being charged with dispensing favors that they are reluctant to sign the simplest document involving money. The trials of Menderes & Co. are still going on in low gear at Yassiada island, but because of mismanagement and the flimsiness of much of the evidence, have largely lost impact with the Turkish public. In fact, the chief effect has been to win the defendants a certain amount of sympathy even among the revolution's early supporters.

The junta still seems edgy at underground rumblings of Menderes sentiment, so much so that it often confuses free speech with conspiracy. One defense lawyer was jailed last fortnight for remarking in private conversation that evidence seemed lacking to convict any of the 520 defendants unless the verdict was prearranged. Two weeks ago the two lawyers defending Menderes were arrested and accused of planning to circulate a pamphlet arguing his case, and two newspapers were temporarily closed for printing a pro-Democratic declaration. Last week the junta jailed 65 members of the legally banned Democratic Party, including at least one trial defendant who had been let go only a few days earlier.