Resignation

Coming at a time when Turkey is worried about Cyprus and courted by Russia, the resignation last week of Foreign Minister Fuad Koprulu had international overtones. But Dr. Koprulu was specific: "My resignation has no connection with external problems." An Ottoman scholar and a member of a distinguished family (which produced several Grand Viziers), Koprulu, 66, had stepped down from the government for reasons that were even more fundamental than foreign policy: the growing instability of the country and its government.

Though Turkey's muzzled press was virtually forbidden to speculate on Koprulu's resignation, most observers knew that it was the outcome of a struggle for control of Istanbul's provincial Democratic Party organization. His opponent was Dr. Mukerrem Sarol, a gynecologist, who was dropped from the Cabinet last year under a cloud of influence-peddling charges. Dr. Koprulu had long held that Sarol should be purged from the party, and he was in fact ousted for a while. But of late Sarol has been more and more often in the company of Premier Adnan Menderes. Last week two events went hand in hand: a curt government announcement that the charges against Sarol had been dropped, and Dr. Koprulu's resignation.

Whether Dr. Koprulu will attempt to head up an opposition group to Menderes within the Democratic Party is still to be seen. Menderes has the votes. But Koprulu is no small figure. He is one of the four founders (along with Menderes and President Celal Bayar) of the Democratic Party. His successor as Foreign Minister: Ethem Menderes, a relative of the Prime Minister, raised in Menderes' home.

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