TURKEY BEHIND THE FACADE
Coryell, Schofield
TURKEY BEHIND THE FACADE BY SCHOFIELD CORYELL Afull-fledged parliament operates more or less normally, its sessions punctuated by lively, even acrimonious debate over issues of economic and...
...Behind the facade of parliamentary democracy, human-rights violations fester as the government carries out its campaign against the Left...
...The opposition focused attention on the case of Siddik Belgin, a schoolteacher who was killed last July in a police station...
...Despite the maze of rules and regulations against "subversive" collective action, discontent at the grass roots has spilled into the public realm...
...And the torture continues...
...The treaty came up for renewal last year, but no decision on a new one was made, so it was extended until September...
...Government to lower its tariff barriers against Turkish textiles and other products...
...On foreign policy, the social democrats are more cautious...
...Such assertiveness from the Left no doubt rankles Turkish generals and Washington policymakers...
...Like most U.S...
...Still, the new tolerance is relative and precarious...
...The new group, launched in November, is called the Social Democratic People's Party...
...What's more, Ozal's policies accentuated the polarization of the society...
...An outdoor protest organized by the conservative trade-union federation, Turk-Is, drew some 100,000 protesters...
...Government...
...Authorities point to the recent lifting of martial law in most of the country, including Istanbul and Ankara, and to the replacement of the death penalty by thirty-year sentences as further signs of "liberalization...
...They predict a smashing victory at the polls in the legislative elections of 1988...
...Pentagon planners value Turkey because it shares a border not only with the Soviet Union but also with Bulgaria, Iran, Iraq, and Syria...
...his friends say he was tortured...
...TURKEY BEHIND THE FACADE BY SCHOFIELD CORYELL Afull-fledged parliament operates more or less normally, its sessions punctuated by lively, even acrimonious debate over issues of economic and social policy...
...A moderate leftist party— frankly describing itself as social-democratic—has taken shape...
...The arrangement seems to suit Washington, for the United States provides full support-military, diplomatic, economic—to Turkey, which serves as NATO's outpost on the Soviet border...
...But the upsurge proved ephemeral, and the persistent problems of the Turkish economy—an inflation rate hovering around 50 per cent and an unemployment rate of approximately 20 per cent—stubbornly reasserted themselves...
...Egypt...
...Last December, for example, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark withdrew the complaints against Turkey they had previously lodged before the European Court of Human Rights...
...Parents are tortured in front of their children...
...This gives Turkey immense strategic importance as a potential launching pad for intervention in the Middle East or for provocations against the socialist states...
...nuclear-arms depots...
...The Ankara authorities have tried desperately to put a good face on an extremely ugly situation, reiterating their intention of ending torture practices—though the government officially denies that such practices exist...
...But the rift was patched up, and a new five-year Turko-American military-assistance treaty was signed in the dwindling days of the Carter Administration...
...Last September, for example, at the funeral services for the popular leftist singer, Ruhi Su, thousands of mourners participated in a spontaneous political demonstration...
...They are raped— the men as well as the women...
...The confession fell like a bombshell on the political stage, and the police promptly seized all the copies...
...clients, Turkey has had its moments of serious tension with Washington...
...The torture cases are finally beginning to haunt the power structure, and a deteriorating economic situation calls into question the free-market policies that have been slavishly pursued by the Turkish government...
...Inside Turkey, political stirrings can be detected, even within the repressive framework of parliamentary fascism...
...But we will refuse to let our country be used as a base of operations for an eventual American attack on any of our neighbors—either the Arab countries or the Socialist states...
...The police version says the teacher died "while trying to escape...
...The demonstration was officially tolerated, though 10,000 well-armed security police stood menacingly nearby...
...A year ago, the Social Democratic Party drew tens of thousands of demonstrators to a protest at Istanbul's public square...
...This policy initially boosted activity in certain areas of the economy, most notably exports...
...We have no intention of leaving NATO," one leading militant said...
...This merger brings together the previously separated forces that came out of the Republican People's Party, founded by the nationalist hero, Mustafa Kamal, in the 1920s and disbanded by fiat after the military coup of 1980...
...In fact, the United States gives more aid to Turkey than to any other country in the world, except Israel and Schofield Coryell is a free-lance writer based in France who frequently visits Turkey...
...Turkish authorities are tolerating protest partly in deference to world opinion and partly because squelching it completely could lead to more violent—perhaps uncontrollable—explosions of popular discontent...
...The party promises to reverse Ozal's free-enterprise policies, placing renewed emphasis on the public sector for economic recovery...
...The police arrested several dozen protesters for shouting such "unauthorized" slogans as Down with Fascism...
...He was released, however, after a few days behind bars, as were the rank-and-file demonstrators...
...The dark secret of torture is being uttered in the Turkish press and even in the parliament—an occurrence unheard of in the past...
...they hope to win a parliamentary majority that would enable them to revamp and democratize the highly undemocratic constitution that was adopted by "referendum" in 1982...
...Many of the victims are political prisoners, who have been behind bars for years, awaiting trial on such charges as "spreading communist propaganda" or "forming a communist organization...
...Members of the Workers' Party, the Turkish Communist Party, various Kurdish nationalist groups, and the left-wing labor federation DISK fill the prisons...
...11 five American bases for monitoring Soviet rocket launchings...
...These social democrats have a voice inside parliament, which has been functioning quite normally since it was reestablished in November 1983...
...They want more money to modernize their outdated Army equipment, requesting $ 1.2 billion instead of the $750 million already offered...
...Under his guidance, the government has insisted on doing everything in its power to encourage and support private enterprise...
...The prisoners are chained to the walls for days on end...
...Meanwhile, the press remains censored, the universities regimented...
...K seven U.S...
...But for the moment, they appear ready to allow a measure of dissent alongside the torture chambers...
...It's no accident that Gary Powers's U2 plane took off from an air base in southern Turkey...
...The Party's general secretary was himself arrested, a few weeks later, for the strong words he spoke at the rally, criticizing the repressive role of the Turkish army and the domination of the economy by the International Monetary Fund...
...Despite the censorship and the threat of prosecution for publishing "wrong thoughts," the dailies and periodicals have been printing article after article about torture behind bars...
...The tortures are often 'scientifically' inhuman," says a middle-aged woman whose husband had been in prison for more than a year...
...In fiscal 1986, U.S...
...General Evren, who donned civilian clothes and assumed the presidency at that time, still has the last word behind the scenes and holds the essential reins of power...
...On one occasion, the guards murdered a prisoner by hammering a nail into his head...
...Several recent opinion polls published in the Istanbul papers indicate that the Social Democratic People's Party would actually come out on top if elections were held today...
...Taking advantage of Turkey's geographic position, the United States and NATO maintain an array of major military installations, including: 11 fourteen NATO radar stations for surveillance over Soviet air-space...
...children are tortured in front of their parents...
...A handful of powerful national and multinational trusts soaked up an ever-larger share of the country's wealth while the common people—whom Ozal demagogically praises as the "pillars of society"— have had an increasingly harder time eking out an existence...
...to this day, the country's reputation as an "unsinkable aircraft carrier" remains intact...
...armed forces—and consistently carrying out U.S.-approved policies—in return for substantial economic assistance to bolster up the successive right-wing regimes in Ankara...
...they were discovered when messengers delivered their meals in lunch-pails...
...All these organizations were banned following the military coup of September 1980, which brought General Kenan Evren to power and martial law to the people...
...Since the end of World War II, Turkey has been a virtual American protectorate, providing important facilities for the U.S...
...A thousand additional officers dressed in workers' clothes...
...It has abolished price controls, and in a spectacular tribute to the free market, it sold off shares of the famous bridge over the Bosporus to individual or corporate buyers...
...The deteriorating economic situation has emboldened the opposition...
...The newly formed Social Democratic People's Party has also aired the dirty laundry in parliament, demanding (though not receiving) an official investigation of torture and the elimination of such practices...
...And they want the U.S...
...In a politically important development, SODEP—the main force of the moderate Left—has merged with a similar but much smaller and less dynamic movement, the Populist Party...
...H two NATO air-force bases...
...This spring the cautiously liberal weekly Notka (The Point) published the telling testimony of a former police officer, Sedar Caner, who described the tortures he had inflicted on some 200 prisoners...
...The gesture was widely regarded in Turkey as a substantial victory for the government of Turgut Ozal, the former International Monetary Fund official who was elected prime minister in November 1983...
...These public-relations maneuvers have met with some success...
...For the first time since the 1980 coup, the Left in Turkey is gathering organizational strength...
...His clothes were then returned to his relatives with the laconic comment: 'He won't be needing them any more.'" This is Turkey...
...Prisoners are forced to endure electric shock, falaka (repeated beating on the soles of the feet), burning with cigarettes, hanging from the ceiling for prolonged periods, punching and kicking, and clubbing the entire body—including the genitals—with wooden or iron bars...
...In 1974, the United States imposed a temporary arms embargo on Turkey following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus...
...A variety of torture methods are used in Turkey, according to Amnesty International...
...The police charged the crowd and arrested mourners at random...
...Turkish officials are demanding an even better deal from the U.S...
...the torture cases are finally beginning to haunt the power structure, and an economic crisis calls into question the free-market policies slavishly pursued by the Turkish government Ozal has been less successful in fending off critics of his economic policies...
...The government has even indicted a few dozen police officers for their involvement in torture cases...
...Six months ago, Amnesty International published a damning report detailing some of the innumerable cases of torture in Turkish prisons...
...A wellA well-organized social-democratic Left has reconstituted itself, calling for a 'reorientation of national priorities9 and a more equitable distribution of wealth organized social-democratic Left has reconstituted itself, calling for a "reorientation of national priorities" and a more equitable distribution of wealth...
...taxpayers are providing Turkey with $615 million in military assistance and $120 million in economic aid...
...Leaders of the new party, which calls for gradual social reform and a commitment to social justice, display a surprising optimism...
...Electrodes are attached to their genital organs...
Vol. 50 • July 1986 • No. 7
