The Second Republic

In the Turkish elections three weeks ago, no party won a clear mandate, but the Republicans, favored by the armed forces and by General Cemal Gursel's junta, suffered a setback while the Justice Party, drawing supporters of executed Premier Adnan Menderes, showed considerable strength. In the wake of these results, as the parties maneuvered to form a new government, the country's top military brass* gathered ominously in Ankara. Out to the politicians went an invitation as crisp as a parade-ground command: form a coalition government of all major parties, with Gursel as President, or face a military takeover.

First to react was Gursel's junta, which has ruled Turkey for the past 17 months. Its members are no longer active soldiers; nonetheless, for the confrontation with the military, they donned their old uniforms and strapped on side arms. The military's conditions: in addition to accepting Gursel as President, the new coalition government must guarantee to uphold changes made since the overthrow of Adnan Menderes, including the dismissal of some 7,000 officers thrown out because of alleged ties with the Menderes regime.

Presumably to show that it meant business, the military then ordered all leading politicians to straighten matters out expeditiously at a meeting in the presidential palace in Ankara; when Peasant-and-Nation Party Leader Osman Bolukbasi failed to show up, an armed party was sent to fetch him.

With that, it was all over except for the formalities: duly the Grand National Assembly elected Gursel as the Second Republic's new President. The only other announced candidate for the presidency, Ali Fuat Basgil of the pro-Menderes Justice Party, saw the handwriting on the wall, hastily withdrew not only from the race but from Ankara itself. The final vote for Gursel: 433 out of a possible 607.

Gursel has yet to appoint the Premier who will head the new government. But whoever the man and whatever his stature, the job awaiting him is formidable. Adnan Menderes is dead and buried, but his ghost has not been laid; Turkey once again has an elected government, but the threat of another military regime toppling the government remains, and the country's long-deferred hope of stable democracy is still far from assured. President Gursel himself gave oblique recognition to these facts of current Turkish political life. Said he: "Our Second Republic even now is on trial."

* Including the commanders of the army, General Muhittin Onur, the air force. General Irfan Tansel, and the navy, Admiral Necdet Uran, as well as 16 divisional commanders brought in from the field.

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