TURKEY: Democratic Purge

Speeding through Ankara just after sunup one morning last week, police squads knocked on door after door. To the men who answered—all key armed forces officers and members of the National Unity Committee that has been running Turkey since the May 27 revolution—the police presented documents, with blunt instructions to sign them immediately. As they complied, the officers found themselves simultaneously resigning from the Unity Committee and retiring from the army. Thus neatly did Turkey’s boss, laconic General Cemal Gursel, purge the 14 men who had been opposing his plans to restore democracy to Turkey.

The ousted officers ranged in rank from captain to colonel, in political views from fuzzy neutralist to near Fascist. As leaders of the revolution, they had an important voice within the Unity Committee, and had used it to support the notion that the army had a mission to continue running Turkey. On occasion, to Gursel’s dismay, they carried the day within the committee for such highhanded measures as the summary firing last month of 147 university professors suspected of antiarmy sentiments.

Lately, the clique had pushed not only for a three-year postponement of elections but for passage of a law setting up an army-run bureau to control the press, education, religion and culture. At that, Gursel decided to move. “Recent commit tee discussions have taken the form rather of open war than of constructive exchanges,” he explained later. “In a democracy, it is necessary to have the self-restraint to abide by a majority decision.” With his control of top army commands, Gursel managed to get rid of the 14 relatively junior officers without resistance-though he prudently disconnected their home telephones before sending the police with the news. To keep them out of trouble, the 14 will be scattered abroad as “advisers” to Turkish embassies.

Gursel still plans to establish, before the end of the year, a constituent assembly to work with the Unity Committee in drafting a new Turkish constitution and writing all major legislation. His target date for general elections is Oct. 29, 1961—not as soon as he had talked of in the first afterglow of revolution, but a lot sooner than would be the case had the ousted 14 had their way.