Revolution, 1960

People in Foreign Service, it is said, will sooner or later experience a revolution. It has happened to us at last and Our Life Is Now Complete.

Background

Following the end of World War I, General Mustafa Kemal (later known as Atatürk, “father of the Turks”) led the revolution which culminated in the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922 and in the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. Atatürk ran a “benevolent dictatorship” until his death in 1938. He was succeeded by his former aide and confidant, İsmet İnönü, who also ran the country with a strong single-hand. Responding to increasing pressures from foreign powers (the U. S., in particular), İnönü began to move toward a democratic government at the end of World War II. In the elections of 1946, he permitted the creation of a second political party, the Democrats, to stand in token opposition to his own party, the Republicans. This looked fine in the newspapers, but no one was fooled: the 1946 election was “manipulated.” Outside pressures continued to increase and in 1950 İnönü succumbed to the extent of holding an absolutely free election with unrestricted campaigning. He lost his shirt — the Democrats swept the field! Bayar, prominent in the days of Atatürk, became president and a young dynamo, Adnan Menderes, succeeded İnönü as prime minister, the main position of power. For the first several years, the Democrats apparently did a good job, and their majority in the Grand National Assembly was increased in the free election of 1954.

By this time, Turkey was working itself into severe financial difficulties. The country’s foreign credits became bad, the value of the lira depreciated greatly on the world market, inflation struck Turkey, and the cost of living sky-rocketed. Intellectuals assigned the blame to the Democrats (and perhaps erroneously). To control the criticism and to maintain power, Menderes and Bayar became tough. When we arrived in Turkey in 1956, the first of the restrictions on the types of freedoms that we cherish in the United States were starting. In the last four years, we saw all vestiges of democracy virtually disappear. By a series of laws (all probably unconstitutional), opposition newspapers and opposition political parties, chiefly the Republicans, were effectively strangled. The 1958 election was a farce, although there was probably no need at that time for skullduggery. By early 1960, most educated Turks were bitterly opposed to the Democrats and even the farmer who had been Menderes’ principle supporter was beginning to grumble.

Turkish law does not specify the dates for elections. Apparently wishing to increase their substantial majority in the Assembly, the Democrats had announced elections “sometime in the summer of 1960.” In early April, Menderes sent a commission of experts into the provinces to canvass the voting situations. They reported back to him that opposition was so strong that “there was a chance” that the party would loose at the polls. This report was the direct cause of today’s troubles.

A tested method of winning elections is to demolish all opposition. On April 27, the Grand National Assembly debated an extraordinary bill designed for this purpose. Without going into details, it would have permitted the Democrats to remove from the ballot any political party desired, and to jail any politician without charges or trial for a three year period. Not only was the bill passed, but many Republicans (including İnönü himself, now a national patriarch) were ejected from the Assembly for speaking vehemently against it. The law grossly violated the Turkish constitution.

Martial law

The day after the political control bill was passed, there was a demonstration (or riot, if you prefer) by students and faculty of the Law College of the University of İstanbul. The demonstration was controlled by police bullets; the students were driven back into university buildings and were contained there. Other groups rose in sympathy all over town. The number of dead will never be established, for all bodies were given secret burial.

On Friday, April 29, a similar demonstration took place at the Law College of Ankara University. This time, the military assisted the police and the affair was controlled with only a very few deaths. The governments of the cities of İstanbul and Ankara were turned over to the military; martial law and stringent regulations were imposed. For several days, small demonstrations arose here and there but were soon stamped out.

Curfews were imposed, all meetings banned, all political opposition throttled, universities closed, local news was censored, and importation of foreign journals was barred. Most newspapers were actually shut down by the martial law commanders. Following several days of relative calm, curfew was relaxed an hour or so a day, and even reached a midnight-to-three-AM basis which disturbed the life of none save night-club owners.

Except for the first few days, there was never any serious trouble at the surface. However, strong undercurrents of unrest were developing. People who had been “on the fence”, politically speaking, objected to the recent acts in violation of the constitution (even as did many Democratic assemblymen — about 100 of them resigned from the party). A strong sympathy developed for the students but few other people took actual part in any of the demonstrations.

On Friday, May 20, an army colonel in civilian clothes was arrested during a small riot. He struck a policemen, protesting the latter’s hitting an old man. This colonel was an official at Turkey’s War College, the local “West Point.” The next day, more than 1000 War College students marched through the streets demonstrating in protest of the colonel’s arrest, and were quickly joined by several thousand university students. There was no violence: armed troops cordoned to block the cadets’ way let them pass. Thousands of spectators approved and cheered. Most significantly (but not realized as such at the time), the army imposed no punishment of any type on the cadets for this demonstration in violation of martial law.

On Wednesday, May 25, the Grand National Assembly was dissolved for one month, deferring government throughout the country to the martial law command. This was the trigger for the next and most historic step.

Revolution

Early in the morning of May 27, Jeanne and I were woken by gunfire. Troops and tanks were assaulting the Presidential Palace and other locations in town. A group of generals had turned against the political government and were taking control of the country. All cabinet members, including President Bayar and Prime Minister Menderes, were arrested and placed in “protective custody.” (Amusingly, the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly was caught in flagrante delicto, as some say, and the Minister of the Interior was hauled away in a garbage truck.) Radio stations, post offices, government buildings, official residences were seized and guarded, and the civil police (largely loyal to the Menderes regime) was disarmed and disbanded.

Presumably, the coup had been well planned (indeed, it was directed by the martial law commanders themselves). There was no opposition by troops, only by small groups of civil and secret police who were guarding some of the official residences. While there was much gunfire, there were only a few deaths. Almost immediately, orders were issued by radio from the “Committee of National Unity,” and just as fast, rumours followed.

The junta pledged safety to foreigners, adherence to existing treaties, immediate release of political prisoners, and withdrawal from power immediately after free elections which will be “held in the near future.”

During the daytime of the relatively bloodless revolution, the populace was ordered to stay at home. We received no useful instructions from the Embassy, and found out later that no one there could determine the score either. Events were followed by means of neighborhood gossip and through the good offices of Turkish friends who phoned from time to time. In the afternoon, two Turkish officers who are students of Jeanne’s at the local English-language school stopped by to reassure her and to find if we need anything. Tom, visiting a friend to get a blow-by-blow translation of the radio, saw armed troops enter the building to search unsuccessfully for some politician (he was in Paris, and should stay there).

At four in the afternoon, the house-confinement rule was lifted. By the thousands, people streamed to the central part of town enthusiastically supporting the coup. The cheering, singing, chanting, marching, flag waving, jubilant albeit careless and dangerous rifle firing, fantastic confusion and milling around was almost unbelievable. At least in Ankara, the Committee of National Unity has the complete support of the people. The soldier was king. Every one was greeted as a “liberator,” applauded, carried on backs, embraced. The song of the day was chanted as a college cheer:

Uninhibited enthusiasm still prevailed the second day of the revolution. Jailed politicians, newspapermen, and rioters from the days of martial law were released. A committee began to draft a new constitution which, it is claimed, will contain safeguards against restrictions such as were imposed by the Menderes government. The military junta, headed by General Gürsel, seems to know its business and I suspect that normalcy will be re-established in a very few days.

Most foreigners feel that the revolution was both necessary and timely. Only by such a mechanism could democracy be re-established in this country that is such a staunch supporter of the West. We sincerely hope that the Committee will indeed follow its announced program and that it will not be diverted therefrom.

The effect on the Logans

At no time have we been in any danger. The riots that preceded martial law and the gunfire of the revolution took place in parts of Ankara that we seldom frequent. At times, we were forced to stay away from the central business district. The changing hours of curfew have been an annoyance, in that parties have been cancelled or terminated at early hours, but in some respects this was a blessing. We skipped a few movies, but probably missed nothing thereby. The lack of news in the early days of martial law was far from pleasant, but we do have an excellent radio. After about two weeks, the “Stars and Stripes” returned to the Post Exchange newsstand and we caught up to some extent. All in all, our problems have been mainly those of confusion, uncertainty, and nuisances, and they will certainly continue for some time to come.

The hardest-hit of our family has been Tom. The Senior Prom is the biggest event for a graduating high school student. The “witching hour” of the curfew was changed from midnight to 8 PM just the day before and it seemed that the dance was doomed. By making fast arrangements, the Prom was held early: from 3 to 7:30 PM! However, on that big night (or afternoon, if you will) the kids were not able to quit at such an early hour. Most of them attended private parties that ran through the curfew and they limped home, exhausted, at five in the morning when travel in the streets was permitted.

So you see that conditions here in Ankara have not been overly difficult. We could do without the curfew, but at the same time, we have adapted ourselves to it. The last month has brought us a few discomforts only, but it never, never brought boredom!

Ankara; May 30, 1960

Comments (added 1/3 of a century later):

The military dictatorship that replaced the Democratic Party brought both President Celal Bayar and Prime Minister Adnan Menderes to trial. Bayar was given “house arrest” for the few remaining years of his life; Menderes was executed.

So what happened to the Turkish Democratic Party after the execution of its leader, Menderes?

It was reorganized under a different name with slightly different objectives by my dear friend Süleyman Demirel. In spite of a couple of subsequent military overthrows of constitutional governments, Demirel obtained the Prime Ministry of the Republic of Turkey about 3 times over the years and as I write this comment near the end of 1998, he has been the President for quite some time [note: Turkey has a parliamentary government].

18 December 1998