Turkey: A Ride to Victory

Suleyman Demirel, 41, is a hardheaded peasant’s son, a construction engineer who once worked with the U.S.Bureau of Reclamation, later amassed a private fortune as an Ankara contractor. He inherited the party and prestige of Turkey’s slain strongman, Adnan Menderes, and adroitly harnessed the demirkirat, or iron grey horse, which was the symbol of Menderes’ Democratic Party, for his own Justice Party.

In his campaign for leadership of the Turkish government, Demirel was attacked by his opposition as too pro-American. As it turned out, that seemed to be a compliment. Demirel last week rode the demirkirat to an overwhelming victory, received 55.5% of the vote, far more than anyone had expected, and took over as Premier.

His overwhelming win in part was a tribute to the faulty judgment of his prime opponent, seasoned Republican Party Chieftain Ismet Inönü, 81. Well aware that his own do-little administration had done nothing to enhance him with the voters, Inönü hoped to appeal to a radical strain in Turkish public opinion with a new and unaccustomed stance as a “left-of-center” friend of Russia. Turks aren’t very radical. They vastly preferred Demirel’s calls for renewed cordiality toward the West, new incentives for private enter prise and a promise “to get Turkey moving again.” Left, so to speak, at the post (with only 30% of the vote), Inönü last week faced demands for retirement from many of his fellow Republicans. “The old fox outfoxed him self this time, and us along with him,” growled one.

The military, which deposed Menderes and reinstated Inönü in 1961, was not especially happy with the election results, but it seemed for the present willing to abide by the will of the ma jority. After all, thanks to a weighted “national remainder” system of voting that favors five smaller parties at the expense of the large one, the Justice Party, with a majority of the vote in 62 out of 67 provinces, will hold only 240 seats out of the 450 in the Nation al Assembly (Inönü’s Republicans get 134). Besides, Demirel himself showed that he knows where the real power lies. “The Turkish army,” said he politely, “is a great asset to the nation. I don’t know of any other army in the world that turned power over to a civilian Parliament only a year and a half after the revolution.”