The People's Choice

The revolution began at midnight and was over within six hours. Shortly before dawn, radios rasped: "The Turkish armed forces have taken over the administra tion of the country." Thus, in a blink of history's eye, ended the ten-year rule of highhanded, dictatorial Premier Adnan Menderes.

A patriot who kept his country firmly aligned with the West, Menderes had driven his country so close to ruin with showy projects ranging from dams to mosques that he had to be repeatedly bailed out by U.S. money. A onetime democrat, he had become so iras cible under criticism that he had progressively choked the press and whittled away at freedom of speech for opposition politicians.

The coup was a total surprise. Despite four weeks of sporadic anti-Menderes demonstrations by students and cadets in Ankara and Istanbul, few had suspected that the ebullient Premier was really in jeopardy. His party commanded an almost 3-to-1 majority in the Assembly, and outside the sophisticated urban centers, his popularity among the peasant population remained high. Until the radio blared its stunning news, many Turks had never even heard of General Cemal Gursel, the longtime professional soldier who led the revolt.

Matter of Timing. The operation was a masterwork of organization. By 3:30 a.m., army, navy and air units, backed by tanks, held all key points. In all Turkey only one man was killed--an army lieutenant who was shot when an excited cop pulled a gun as the officer entered an Ankara post office. Officers found President Celal Bayar (who recently told a Western diplomat: "We are going to crush opposition") at his palace. Bayar flourished a pistol and his daughter threw a kitchen knife at the officers before they could hustle him off to "protective custody" in the War College barracks in Ankara. The Justice Minister was yanked from an automobile luggage compartment; the Foreign Minister took refuge with his father-in-law's chauffeur; the Interior Minister was found in hiding in the bathroom.

Arrest on the Road. Premier Menderes was spending the night at a guesthouse at a new sugar mill in Eskisehir, where that day he had denounced the lawyers and professors who had criticized his most recent efforts to repress opposition, and told cheering supporters: "They think they can bring us down, but they cannot. We are too strong. We will fix them." Around midnight, pleasantly warmed by raki. he went to bed.

In the corridor outside his bedroom door, the air force colonel commanding the Premier's personal guard waited for his 3 a.m. deadline to arrest his boss. He did not hear the phone ring at Menderes' bedside. The call--from a district mili tary commander--passed along a warning tip from Menderes' loyal army chief. General Rustu Erdelhun. Menderes dressed and tiptoed into the adjoining room, where his Finance Minister, Hasan Polatkan, slept. Together they planned their flight.

Back at the sugar mill, the colonel hastily raised the alarm that Menderes had fled. U.S.-made F-100jet fighters took off from the nearby airbase, spotted the car speeding through the night. Outside Ku-tahya a roadblock was set up. The limousine jerked to a halt. "So you are going to arrest me," said Menderes. "Yes, sir," said an officer. Finance Minister Polatkan fainted.

"Keep Out of Politics." The Turkish army has long scrupulously observed the admonition of the late great Kemal Ataturk that the army should stay out of partisan politics. But it also remembered that Ataturk charged it with guarding the constitution. Its younger officers had watched with growing uneasiness as Menderes cut down critics and harassed the opposition Republican Party headed by Ismet Inonu, ex-President and longtime comrade-in-arms of Ataturk himself. Two months ago, Menderes directed the army to stop Inonu from going on a political barnstorming trip to Kayseri. The major ordered to halt Inonu's train resigned in protest. Menderes' police promptly arrested the major, along with two other officers who resigned. General Gursel, then commander in chief of Turkey's ground forces, protested this use of troops for political purposes--and was summarily "retired," "Protect yourself from this nefarious atmosphere," said the general in a farewell message to his troops. "Keep the army's honor high, and above all, keep out of politics."

Last month, when Menderes proclaimed martial law and ordered troops to put down student demonstrations in Istanbul and Ankara, the army found itself forced to act against its own people. Police had killed at least a dozen students who were protesting the Premier's appointment of an all-Democratic committee with starchamber powers to investigate the "subversive" activities of the opposition Republicans. Officers of the middle rank--colonels, majors, captains--began planning active revolt. They first asked Inonu to be their leader. The old soldier refused.

"I am the leader of the opposition,'' he growled, "and any illegal activity on my part is incompatible with my position." When they suggested that Inonu free himself by resigning as party leader, he cut them short: ''The only way I will come to power is through free elections. That is final." The officers then approached Gursel. who agreed to head a "National Unity Committee."

No Herd. On the morning of the revolution, General Gursel was fetched by military jet from his Izmir home. By 9:30 a.m., he was sitting at Menderes' desk in Ankara, proclaiming himself provisional head of government and the armed forces. "I tried to reason with the politicians, but they were blinded by ambition. We had to act," he told the nation in a radio broadcast. "They ignored my advice. They thought the Turkish nation was a senseless herd." He added: "I have no intention, I repeat, no intention whatever of being a dictator.'' The whole purpose of the coup, he insisted, was "for the purpose of having just and free elections as soon as possible, and for handing over the administration to whichever party wins the election."

New Start. Few army coups have ever been more popular. In Istanbul people hung out flags, danced in the streets and yelled: "Freedom, freedom!'' Cheering throngs in Ankara hoisted soldiers, sailors, airmen on their shoulders. The army, most Turks felt, had snatched the country from the hands of the privileged few in power and restored it to the people.

General Gursel briskly set to work to abolish all trace of the repressive measures Menderes had imposed. He freed 200 students and nine newsmen, licensed 14 banned newspapers to start publishing again. Ahmet Emin Yalman, dean of Turkish journalism, published his first art:'c':e since his release from prison last month: "The Turkish armed forces are marching forward with giant steps on the road opened by Ataturk." General Gursel fetched seven professors from Istanbul to help draft a provisional constitution. One was Istanbul University President Siddik Sami Onar, who was badly beaten by Menderes' police when he protested their rough treatment of student demonstrators last month.

The new government took pains to assure Turkey's allies that the new regime was dedicated to maintaining Turkey's commitments to NATO, CENTO and the West. One of Gursel's first acts was to dispatch a colonel to inform U.S. Ambassador Fletcher Warren: "Tell the U.S. that we want to build a Turkey on the model of the U.S."

At week's end, Gursel shipped Menderes and other top officials to an island in the Sea of Mamora for safekeeping, and declared that they might not be freed before the promised elections. His explanation: "A little rest might do Menderes and his party good." Meanwhile Ismet Inonu was hailed by cheering crowds wherever he went.

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