Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1950. CRISIS IN TURKEY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 287, 21 September 1950, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1950. CRISIS IN TURKEY

A short time ago we referred to the political upset which had occurred in Turkey, but it would appear that the position is worse than was at first feared. Party strife is rampant, and has been intensified by a decision to bring legal proceedings against Mr Kasin Gulek, secretary-General ox the Popular Republican Party, which is the main Opposition party in the country. The proceedings are being brought following allegations that he spread “alarm and despondency” over the despatch o'f Turkish troops to Korea. The Magistrate’s inquiry directed against Mr Gulek concerned conversations which he was alleged to have had_with members of his party at Bozuyuk, a small town on the railway line between Istanbul and Ankara, during a tour of Anatolia. Mr Gulek is a former Cabinet Minister and was also at one time a member of the United Nations Korea Commission. He is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant younger men in the P.R.P. A Reuter correspondent has given some details of the situation, and he' says that the decision to open the inquiry may lead to a trial. The penal code considers such actions as those alleged to the offences against the law, and heavy penalties are provided. The Prime Minister, in a recent warning, declared he had knowledge of “vast provocative activity, stretching to the remotest village which without any doubt has been orchestrated from a centre.” The aim of this campaign, the Prime Minister said, was to “divide the country” over the decision to send Turkish troops to Korea.

The emphasis laid by the Prime Minister on what he called “sinister provocation” contrasted strongly with previous public statements by P.R.P. leaders on Korean policy. A few days before, for example, Mr Cemil Sait Barlas, editor of the Istanbul P.R.P. paper “Son Telgraf” and a former Cabinet Minister, had written: “We repeat for the hundredth time that the P.R.P. has never said that it was against the despatch of Turkish 'troops (to Korea). The point on 1 which it is not in agreement with the Government is a point of procedure. The Government should, before taking this decision, have consulted the opposition parties and also should have convened the Grand National Assembly to give its opinion.” Dealing with this argument, the Prime Minister said: “Still more disconcerting is the fact that, on the one hand, they (the P.R.P.) affirm that they criticise only the way in which this decision was taken and deplore only the fact that they were not consulted while on the other hand, they are carrying on, even in the most distant villages, violent propaganda against the substance itself of the decision.” A communique by the Ankara section of the Democrat Party (the Government Party) gave an example of the kind of propaganda which they accused the P.R.P. of spreading. It stated that P.R.P. propagandists in the capital and nearby villages were going around saying: “You voted for the Democrat Party. This is the result of your vote: Your sons, your husbands are being sent to fight in a foreign country. Ismet Pasha weeps over the Turkish blood,which is to be shed abroad. If he were at our head, such a thing would never have happened.” (“Ismet Pasha” is a colloquial way of referring to ex-President Ismet Inonu, the leader of the P.R.P.) What has up to the moment been a whispering campaign has come to the surface, and developments can be expected to follow the inquiry.