The Generals Take Over Again

A rising tide of political violence spurs a reluctant coup

For months, Turkey's generals had warned squabbling politicians to stop feuding and start working together to help end the country's surging factional violence. But the bickering continued, and the death toll from leftist and rightist terrorism mounted from an average of six a day in January to 18 a day so far in September, and to the point where there was talk of imminent civil war. After one particularly bloody stretch, General Kenan Evren, Turkey's chief of staff, complained: "Everyone speaks of national unity, but unfortunately, everyone fails to bring it about."

Finally the military took matters into its own hands. Shortly after midnight last Friday, tanks, armored personnel carriers and ground troops fanned out through Turkey's capital city, surrounding government buildings and setting up roadblocks. In a bloodless coup, a National Security Council, composed of six generals, replaced the democratically elected government of Premier Sueleyman Demirel. Evren, 62, a political moderate who heads the junta, said in a radio announcement that the army had moved to prevent "followers of fascist and Communist ideologies, as well as religious fanatics, from destroying the Turkish Republic."

Striking quickly in the night, the army detained 120 of the country's leading politicians, government officials and trade union leaders. Demirel, leader of the Justice Party, was taken under escort to a military camp in Gallipoli, southwest of Istanbul, as was Buelent Ecevit, head of the opposition Republican People's Party. Martial law, which was already in effect in 20 of Turkey's 67 provinces, was imposed nationwide. A curfew was declared, and frontiers and airports were closed. The generals dissolved parliament, banned all political and trade union activity, and announced that they would run Turkey "until necessary laws are prepared for the smooth functioning of a parliamentary democracy."

Twice before, in 1960 and 1971, the military had intervened to get the civilian government on track; each time the generals handed power back to the politicians as soon as possible. Indeed, the Turkish constitution authorizes the military to step in whenever the security of the state is in jeopardy. As their repeated warnings to the government indicated, Evren and his colleagues were anything but eager to take over. They were aware that a suspension of parliamentary government would threaten vital economic aid from the West and that military rule might even encourage further terrorist activity.

It was the near paralysis of government that forced the military's hand. With Demirel unable to muster a majority in parliament and with Ecevit anxious to foil him at every turn, the legislature has not been able to enact a law for at least six months. Its efforts to elect a new President have stretched unsuccessfully--and somewhat comically--over more than 100 ballots. Even a package of antiterrorist measures supported by both men has sunk into the partisan quicksand. Demirel's right-center party could probably win a majority if Turks went to the polls tomorrow, but Ecevit's left-center group and a small bloc of Islamic fundamentalists have stymied attempts to move the elections up from next June.

The political turmoil undercut a series of promising economic reforms instituted by Demirel last February. Hoping to bring Turkey back from the brink of bankruptcy, Demirel devalued the lira, lifted restrictions on foreign investment, and cut subsidies to inefficient state-owned firms. These steps boosted Turkey's international credit and opened up the aid pipeline from the U.S., Western Europe, Japan and Saudi Arabia. The painful food and fuel shortages of last winter eased. Still, Turkey remains heavily in debt (upwards of $18 billion), unemployment is over 20% and rising, and the inflation rate approaches 120%.

In the meantime, terrorist violence, which has claimed more than 2,000 lives this year and more than 4,000 since 1975, has pushed the country toward anarchy. Until recently, extremists of the left and the right were content to bump off each other. In the past few months, however, they have murdered a member of parliament, a former Prime Minister and a union leader. Communist underground groups have become defiant: last week, before the coup, they festooned Ankara's shopping area with posters booby-trapped with small explosive charges. Soviet propagandists stepped up their broadsides against the Demirel regime. A military source told TIME's Mehmet Ali Kislali in Ankara: "It all seemed like a rehearsal for a Communist revolt."

Because of the convulsions in neighboring Iran and in Afghanistan, the West has all along been jittery about any sign of instability in Turkey. The country is the southeastern bulwark of NATO's defense and a moderate influence in the Islamic world. Its 300-mile border with the Soviet Union makes it a critically important listening post, vital for verification of SALT. While disappointed that democratic procedures had been suspended, the allies viewed the military's intervention as a necessary--and temporary--evil. Said U.S. State Department Spokesman John Trattner: "We take the Turkish generals at their word that they will do what they said they would do."

Many Turks seemed to welcome the military takeover as a respite from the fearful bloodshed. Some terrorists no doubt envision an entirely different outcome. Experts have long suggested that leftist revolutionaries wanted a military regime, in hopes that it would prove so oppressive as to produce a full-scale popular uprising. The generals now have the unenviable task of clamping down on the terrorists, without running roughshod over human rights.

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