Message to a Son

Turkey seemed calm but uneasy. Since the execution of ex-Premier Adnan Menderes, ex-Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan, and ex-Foreign Minister Fatin Rustu Zorlu, for "crimes against the Turkish constitution" (TIME, Sept. 22), the big question was whether Strongman Cemal Gursel would allow free elections to take place, as promised, next month. Cryptically last week, he warned of "provocative elements" that might prevent the election. Obviously disturbed by the executions, the entire Cabinet reportedly offered its resignation, then agreed to stay on at Gursel's insistence.

Meanwhile, details of Menderes' execution slowly became known, in spite of Turkish censorship. Brought back from a near-fatal suicide attempt, the former Premier was hanged as soon as he was declared fit by prison doctors. Apologizing for the "trouble" he had caused his jailers, Menderes was taken aboard a Turkish navy gunboat from the island of Yassiada, where the eleven-month trial had been held, to the prison island of Imrali, where Polatkan and Zorlu had been hanged 36 hours before. Aboard the gunboat Menderes asked permission to make the namaz (ablutions and prayers), later did not remonstrate when told to put on a white smock by the hangmen, who were paid $13.50 apiece. Menderes climbed on to the chair set on a table beneath a tripod, and allowed the rope to be placed around his neck. While four imams from Istanbul chanted prayers, Menderes said: "God save my children." Then the chair was kicked out from under him.

Before mounting the makeshift gallows, Menderes had turned to Altay Egesel, chief prosecutor at the Yassiada trial, and said: "Please tell my son never to mix in politics. When one is in politics one cannot control his destiny." Last week Yuksel Menderes, 31, who had announced his intention of running for deputy on the New Turkey Party ticket in Aydin, his father's birthplace, withdrew his candidacy for "personal reasons."

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