Democracy with Rules

Turkish Prime Minister Nihat Erim was not terribly surprised last week when a message from President Cevdet Sunay was rushed to him at Ankara airport. Erim had just said goodbye to Soviet President Nikolai V. Podgorny, who flew home after a week of inconclusive negotiations over a proposed Soviet-Turkish friendship treaty. Ceremonies completed, Erim tore open the envelope to learn that he was being relieved as Prime Minister because of his "extreme fatigue."

Actually, Erim had been trying to resign for more than a week; he had agreed to remain on the job only to handle the Podgorny visit. Whatever fatigue he felt was caused by his unsuccessful efforts to deal with an obstructionist Parliament that refused to approve his tax-and land-reform measures and sought to prevent him from using the alternative--ruling by decree.

Erim's resignation and Sunay's search for a successor who would continue the departed Prime Minister's "above party" approach to government produced a new political crisis for Turkey. For 50 years the country has been effectively run from behind the scenes by the military, which last year turned out Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel (for not cracking down hard enough on dissenters) and installed the then virtually unknown Erim, a former law professor. Officially, Turkey is a parliamentary democracy, but the four main parties are so fractiously divided that little in the way of creative change is possible. Because Parliament so strongly opposed his reform programs, Erim had tried to resign twice before receiving last week's letter from the

President. Both times the army persuaded him to stay on.

Adding to Turkey's political malaise is the increasing activity of left-wing urban guerrilla groups, many of them composed of students or graduates from the universities. The guerrillas last year carried out a campaign of violence that culminated in the kidnap-murder of Israeli Consul General Ephraim Elrom. Terrorist Leader Mahir Cayan and a cadre of guerrillas from an organization called the Turkish People's Liberation Army were convicted of that crime and were in Istanbul's Maltepe Prison awaiting final sentencing. But they escaped four months ago, kidnaped three NATO radar experts serving at a Black Sea base, and took them to a remote mountain village. As army troops closed in, the hostages were shot; all but one of the guerrillas were killed in a subsequent Shootout.

The murders of the NATO technicians set off a renewed army crackdown on dissent. Since then, 107 leftists have been arrested. Generals now hold key positions in the police, the state radio and television networks and the government-run airline. Some Turkish intellectuals feel that the military has been somewhat excessive in its zeal to preserve order. The army commander of Ankara, for instance, closed down a display of pictures of President Nixon's China visit, sponsored by the Turkish-American Association. Showings of two U.S. movie classics, Citizen Kane and The Grapes of Wrath, were halted because their themes were considered too controversial. Reports persist that some antigovernment critics who were jailed in the crackdown have been tortured.

No Tyranny. The Turkish generals and their complacent allies among the politicians insist that the situation in their country should not be compared with that of neighboring Greece, where the colonels rule. "There is no tyranny here, no dictatorship," insists ex-Prime Minister Demirel, who remains head of the Justice Party, which holds the largest number of seats in Parliament. "This is a free country." By and large, the 36 million Turks--the vast majority of them conservative, unsophisticated Moslem villagers--still support what one observer calls "democracy within the rules."

A major reason for their willingness to go along with the military's ironhanded but velvet-gloved rule is Turkey's economic prosperity. Exports (primarily tobacco, textiles, hazelnuts and cotton) have reached a record high, and so has the balance of payments surplus. Tourism will set new records this year despite inadequate hotel space, and a massive suspension bridge is being built across the Bosporus at Istanbul. Social life in the cities is gay, albeit a trifle restricted. Ankara hostesses, aware that under martial law no one is allowed on the city's streets after the 1:30 a.m. curfew, always make certain that their parties end before that time.

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