Strong Army Medicine

The Generals' pervasive regime brings some results

The pall of fear is lifting in Turkey. Restaurants that had closed for lack of clientele have been reopening. Families that once locked themselves in at sunset are venturing out to evening bazaars. Students have stopped shooting and returned to studying. Just three months after General Kenan Evren and his military junta overthrew Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel's paralyzed government, the country's notorious terrorism is on the wane and the crippled economy is on the mend.

Politicians and critics venture dire predictions about the long-term damage that could result from the present suspension of democratic processes. But few are prepared to deny that "the Generals," as the regime is called, have already gone a long way toward restoring stability to a country that was on the brink of chaos.

The most visible and welcomed success has been the crackdown on terrorism. Last summer the death toll from the political warfare between armed extremists of both left and right had reached 30 a day; now the average is less than two a day.

The new order has not been imposed with kid gloves. Martial law has been extended over the whole country. General Haydar Saltik, secretary-general of the junta, recently announced that 6,900 persons have been arrested since the takeover, 746 have been convicted by military courts, and three have been hanged--the first application of the death penalty in eight years. In at least nine cases, it has been suspected that detainees were tortured to death. Anxious to avoid blame for excessive, police-state brutality, however, the central authorities in each case launched an investigation and sacked eight of the local police commanders.

With comparably severe measures on the economic front, the Generals have managed to cut this year's hyperinflation of 150% almost in half. Within days of the coup, the Generals moved to quiet disgruntled workers with a flat 70% wage hike--and no more. Strikes, which had cost Turkey 8 million man-hour days in the first nine months of 1980, were outlawed. As a result of economic housecleaning, such foreign lenders and investors as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Monetary Fund have been encouraged to continue extending desperately needed credit.

The military takeover has been pervasive in the political realm. With party activity banned, all parliamentary processes remain suspended. Both deposed Prime Minister Demirel and the former opposition leader, Bulent Ecevit, have been released after about a month in detention. The leaders of two militant parties, however--Alparslan Turkey, of the far-right Nationalist Action Party, and Necmettin Erbakan, of the radical Islamic National Salvation Party--are awaiting trial on charges of subversive political activities.

So far, General Evren refuses to set a timetable for any return to civilian rule, although he has convinced most Turks that the junta does intend to step down voluntarily at some point. He has promised to set up a special committee to draft a new constitution. Clearly, however, the junta intends to finish its self-appointed task--administering strong military medicine--before handing over power to the politicians, even those of its own choosing. Said Evren at a meeting of the Journalists' Association of Turkey last week: "Many axes are being kept under cover, waiting in ambush, ready to pounce, when we resign. Have no worries. We will deliver this homeland to you perfectly clean, as it was in Atatuerk's time."

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