TURKEY: Like Nightingales

Sevim Tari is a young (28), pretty Turkish girl of good family. What makes her unusual in Turkey is that she is also a Communist. Daughter of a high-ranking Turkish police official now dead, she studied medicine in Turkey, attended the Sorbonne in Paris. Two years ago she got out of a taxi on Istanbul’s waterfront and was about to board ship for Marseille when the political police grabbed her. On her person the cops found three monthly reports of clandestine Communist operations (Communism has long been barred in Russia-hating Turkey) and other incriminating documents. Sevim confessed, then tried to commit suicide.

As a result of her confession and her papers, the cops got busy. But they did not make arrests until they were ready. Then twelve suspects were arrested, and braced themselves to withstand torture, but instead, the police showed them photographs of conspirators keeping rendezvous, passing documents in parks, etc. The pictures had been taken with telephoto lenses from roofs, treetops and other vantage points. As a gratified cop said, “They sang like nightingales.”

More suspects were brought in. According to the pre-trial testimony, Sevim Tari had been sent by Moscow from Paris to “guide” secret Communist operations in Turkey. They counted on her good social background to throw off suspicion. But she was so sure of herself that she failed to take adequate precautions. Said one of the cops: “She was a disaster for them, a godsend to us.”

Last week 167 defendants, including Sevim, were brought to trial before a three-man military tribunal in Ankara on charges of conspiring with the U.S.S.R. against Turkish security. Although Turkish law prescribes death for Communist leaders, it seemed likely that those convicted would get off with prison terms. Nevertheless, the police were satisfied that the main Communist apparatus in Turkey had been thoroughly smashed.