Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
WHERE the NEWS ENDS By William Henry Chamberlin Mixed Impressions From Turkey Ankara Revisiting Turkey after an absence of four years, one sorts out a mixed bag of impressions in this brand-new...
...Water and other public services have not kept pace, and one finds American families doling out hot water sparingly and looking forward to a visit to Istanbul's fabulous Hilton Hotel as a chance to get a real bath...
...Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, laid out this city on a hill near the site of an Oriental town which was old when Tamerlane crushed the Turkish Sultan Ba-jazet in a great battle in 1402...
...There is also symbolism in the dust and rubble that are a product of the never-ending effort to modernize the city, to tear down old buildings and put up new, to widen streets, sometimes three or four times in quick succession...
...friends of Turkev abroad may hope that its future rulers will realize the importance ol preserving liberty and of economic driving with brakes as well as accelerators...
...But the weather in intervening years lias been unfavorable: the population has been growing rapidly (it is now about 25 million) and requiring more bread: many of the over 40.000 tractors on Turkish fields are laid up from misuse and lack of spare parts...
...It is the general opinion among foreign economists that Turkey, under the driving leadership of Premier Adnan Menderes, has been trying to do too much too fast, with extremely little sense of priority among its economic projects and little consideration for the bounds imposed by its limited capital...
...After thirty years, the city has grown to a population of almost half a million...
...However the election may turn out...
...whose leader...
...the Turks and some American advisers here were talking enthusiastically of Turkey as a country with considerable wheat-exporting possibilities...
...It is now believed that Turkey will do well to supply its own wheal needs, and the country is absorbing considerable U.S...
...was jailed for a controversial speech in Parliament (one of the more extreme repressive measures applied to opposition spokesmen...
...The financial picture has definitely changed for the worse...
...Ismet Inonu...
...This reflects an extreme shortage of import goods, which is, in turn, a consequence of an acute lack of the foreign exchange needed to pay for these goods...
...Largest of these is the Republican party, headed by the dignified elder statesman...
...There are no Communists or fellow-travelers, and the large United States military mission, which is training Turkey's armed forces in I lie use of modem weapons, reports a most cooperative attitude...
...Their reply to a hectoring note from Soviet Premier Rulganin about alleged concentration of Turkish troops near the Syrian frontier was to pick up two Soviet diplomats and throw them out of the country for espionage...
...Four years ago...
...It is significant that Turkey takes no part in the Arab feud against Israel and cultivates trade with that country...
...There will be an election in Turkey on October 27 and three opposition parties are challenging the Democratic party, headed by Menderes...
...The Turks arc historically conditioned to distrust of Russia, and they do not scare...
...notably in finance, economics and respect for constitutional rights...
...Osman Bolukbashi...
...In tile last two years, the free-market value of the Turkish lira (absurdly overvalued at the official rate of 2.8 to the dollar, with a "tourist" rate of 5.25 to the dollar) has fallen from 7 to 13.5 liras to the dollar...
...its credit is exhausted and it is obliged to pledge a part of the resources from its limited sales of such export products as tobacco, dried fruits and cotton to clear up past arrears...
...WHERE the NEWS ENDS By William Henry Chamberlin Mixed Impressions From Turkey Ankara Revisiting Turkey after an absence of four years, one sorts out a mixed bag of impressions in this brand-new capital, complete with opera house, university, parks, boulevards and modern-looking public buildings...
...economic aid ($80 million a year, plus about $70 million in farm surplus produce) can no longer be used to finance big projects of capital development...
...surplus wheat...
...Ankara is symbolic of Turkey's progress since its modernist revolution and of the growing pains which accompany it...
...Stretching a thousand miles from the Dardanelles to the frontier of Iran, Turkey is a solid roadblock to Soviet expansion toward the Mediterranean and a lid on the bubbling ferment in the volatile Arab countries...
...One impression of 1953 is unchanged: Turkey is a loyal, valuable U.S...
...Turkey has been a loyal member of NATO and of the Baghdad Pact, has voted consistently with the United States in the UN, and still maintains a brigade of troops in Korea...
...It must be earmarked to plug the numerous holes in the existing Turkish economy...
...There is also the Liberty party, composed of disgruntled ex-Democrats, and the Nation party, more religious and conservative...
...ally...
...But, while Turkey continues to convey a reassuring impression in foreign policy, there has been deterioration in some other fields since 1953...
...Turkey has run up debts with every country with which it has been trading, and also with the European Payments Union...
Vol. 40 • October 1957 • No. 40
