The Press FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1961. The Turkish Trials

Press, Volume C, Issue 29625, 22 September 1961, Page 10

The Press FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1961. The Turkish Trials

Democracy in Turkey has been served badly by the mass trials that have just ended on Yassiada Island, near Istanbul Soon after seizing power in May, 1960, General Gursel and his colleagues resolved to put on trial almost the entire Menderes Administration. The result has been an extraordinary display of vindictiveness—a juridical farce which has revealed few new facts about the former Government’s corruption, ineptitude, and inhumanity, but which has done little credit to Turkey’s present regime. Before the first death sentences of the special court were carried out. General Gursel could boast of the bloodlessness of his revolution. Today, after organising one of the largest and longest trials in history, the revolutionary junta stands convicted of repressive and revengeful practices little less heinous than those of the Menderes Government.

Although elaborate care was taken to preserve the impartiality of the judges and to establish the legality of the trials, nobody doubted that most of the 500-odd accused would be found guilty. Nevertheless, until recently many had hoped that by a supreme act of clemency the junta would rebut suspicions that personal revenge, as much as political justification for its conduct of affairs, was its motive. By commuting

all the expected death sentences the junta might have gained support from members of Mr Menderes’s Democrat Party, which is now proscribed. Soon after the trials began in October last year, there were signs that the Turkish public were beginning to question the validity of General Gursel’s policy. Since then the junta has initiated most of the steps necessary to restore democratic government; but the most important of these measures—the

constitutional referendum in July was carried through against substantial opposition. This opposition must now be strengthened and embittered by events on Yassiada.

General Gursel has promised that by October 29 a duly - elected Grand National Assembly will be in existence again, and that nothing will postpone the elections. In 1957 Mr Menderes and the

Democrats polled half the votes in the country. New parties formed since Mr Menderes’s fall have sought the allegiance of his former supporters. More arrests of dissidents have indicated the persistence of unrest, in spite of the Yassiada trials and widespread publicity for the shortcomings of the Menderes Government.

Want of clemency to Turkey’s former rulers may prove to have been inexpedient as well as inhumane.