Lull

TURKEY A month after they seized power, Turkey's new military masters were still everybody's heroes. Even onetime Democrats were claiming they had been taken in by deposed Premier Adnan Menderes and hailing General Cemal Gursel's 38-member Committee of National Unity as Turkey's saviors. But abroad fears grew that Turkey's military rulers might be planning a permanent Nasser-or Kassem-type dictatorship rather than turn the country back to civilian rule.

Unequivocal Disavowal. Last week General Gursel staged a public ceremony to reassure the doubters. Before an overflow audience of Turkish citizens, foreign diplomatic and press representatives in the flag-decked Parliamentary chamber, he summoned all 38 members of the junta to a public oath-taking. "As your leader, I will take the oath first," said Gursel. One by one, in alphabetical order, the officers swore "that I will not depart from the aim of organizing a democratic republic according to the constitution, and from turning over the government to an elected parliament."

The ceremony was broadcast over a nationwide radio hookup. Afterward. Gursel declared: "History has never witnessed an event like this. I cannot predict how history will evaluate it. What I do know is that the Turkish nation in the past has created great things in the field of governing and has now displayed to the world an example of reform."

Elections Next Spring. But Turkey's soldiers were slowly realizing the job of cleaning up after the Menderes regime was bigger than even Cemal Gursel first supposed. The university professors working on a new constitution now do not expect to finish it until well into July. If elections cannot be held in the fall, they may have to be put off until spring, since large parts of Turkey are snowed in during the winter. The delay has the advantage of allowing time for political regrouping, since an immediate election would undoubtedly produce a landslide for the Republicans and leave Turkey with virtually a one-party government.

The reformers also are having second thoughts about how to proceed in bringing ex-Premier Menderes, ex-President Celal Bayar and more than 400 other arrested Democratic leaders to trial for corruption. The army reformers are increasingly aware that vindictive, Castro-style blood-letting would only hurt Turkey's world standing, are considerably less bloodthirsty than the press or public in demanding punishment of the old regime. "If the army had wanted to kill all those men," said a Turk appointed to one of the 15 (out of 19) interim ministries assigned to civilians, "it could easily have killed them all when they were arrested. The fact is that it didn't injure even one."

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