Sensational Offer

Last week Soviet Russia made a sensational new move in the cold war. It offered to finance free enterprise in Turkey, bypassing the government.

The No. 1 representative of private enterprise in Turkey is Uzeyr Avunduk, who is president of the Union of Chambers of Commerce and also head of the Is Bankasi (Business Bank), which finances much of Turkish business. The Turkish economy has been deep in trouble because too many businesses expanded beyond their capital resources. Some new factories ran out of capital before completion. Many businesses cannot get foreign exchange to buy spare parts or raw materials.

Into this situation Soviet Russia plunged boldly by offering to Avunduk to put Turkish business back on its feet by outright gifts and barter loans. The Soviet commercial attache invited Avunduk and his friends to come to Russia to see for themselves what Russia could do. He also said that Russia was prepared to aid Turkey through private enterprise on a scale far bigger than aid hitherto given to India and Burma.

Avunduk hastened to Prime Minister Adnan Menderes with the proposition. The Russians had put both of them on a very hot spot: no country is more thoroughly anti-Communist than Turkey, yet the businessmen of Turkey and the public would take it hard if such golden gifts were rejected at a time when a boom is dangerously stalled for lack of capital.

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