Afraid of Criticism

In its current trend away from democratic institutions, Turkey took a decisive and dangerous step. Last week Premier Adnan Menderes jammed through Parliament a bill outlawing all political meetings except those held 45 days prior to a general election. Since Turkey has elections only once every four years, Menderes was effectively denying his people the elementary right of freedom of assembly. Following closely upon his press-muzzling laws, the new act raised the question: Where is Menderes heading?

The developments seemed the more extraordinary in the light of Menderes' record. One of the heirs of Kemal Ataturk's great emancipation of modern Turkey, he was a moving spirit in Turkey's Democratic Party, which in 1950 succeeded Ataturk's Republican People's Party and brought a liberalization of many Ottoman customs that had survived the Ataturk period. He was one of the country's best orators, and his phrases (and ideas) in those days had a Jeffersonian ring. Said he (in 1946): "Governments that do their work well should have no reason to be afraid of freedom of the press."

The boldness of his policies electrified the country. It was Menderes who took the decision to send Turkish troops to the Korean war. He joined the Balkan Pact and helped fashion the Baghdad Pact. He was among the firmest and most useful of U.S. allies in the Mediterranean.

Too Fast. In one respect Menderes' boldness betrayed him. After coming to power he embarked upon an economic program designed to transform Turkey overnight into a modern industrial nation. All over the country power plants, steel mills, textile mills, cement-making factories began springing up, and work was begun on new roads, new irrigation projects and big harbors. To do this Turkey went head over heels into debt, mostly on short-term credits at unfavorable terms. Worse, many of the new projects proved to have been ill-planned, e.g., sugar factories where there were no sugar beets.

Failures in the economic program brought heavy criticism on Menderes' head, and he did not stand up well under it. He hated to be reminded that the Turkish lira was daily losing value in the free market. He got mad with newspapers for publishing pictures showing people queuing for coffee. He could not stand jokes about himself. He consulted his own Democratic Party less and less, surrounded himself more and more with yes men. But he was still enough of a machine politician to win elections and keep a well-drilled majority in the Grand National Assembly. He put his waning popularity down to ignorance and misunderstanding.

The Walkout. The notion that opposition political rallies are damaging not only to himself but to the New Turkey he is building, was the argument that Menderes used last week to ban them. A clause in his bill provides that in the case of people attempting to hold unauthorized meetings, the police or military should shoot three times in the air, and if the meeting does not then disperse, they may fire into the crowd. When Fevzi Karaosmanoglu, leader of the newly created Freedom Party, vigorously protested that this provision was the work of a dictator, he was suspended for using the awful word.

As he walked out of the Assembly, refusing to retract, 65 Deputies followed him. Said Menderes, as the reduced Assembly passed his bill (281 to 2): "Mark you, tomorrow they will be back." But the opposition did not return next day, and their spokesman announced that henceforth they would boycott the National Assembly. Thus, thin-skinned Adnan Menderes will be free of niggling criticism not only in public meetings but in the Grand National Assembly itself. Probably no one but Adnan Menderes found that prospect reassuring.

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