Word: demirel
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...Shortly after midnight last Friday, tanks, armored personnel carriers and ground troops fanned out through Turkey's capital city, surrounding government buildings and setting up roadblocks. In a bloodless coup, a National Security Council, composed of six generals, replaced the democratically elected government of Premier Süleyman Demirel. Evren, 62, a political moderate who heads the junta, said in a radio announcement that the army had moved to prevent "followers of fascist and Communist ideologies, as well as religious fanatics, from destroying the Turkish Republic...
Striking quickly in the night, the army detained 120 of the country's leading politicians, government officials and trade union leaders. Demirel, leader of the Justice Party, was taken under escort to a military camp in Gallipoli, southwest of Istanbul, as was Bülent Ecevit, head of the opposition Republican People's Party. Martial law, which was already in effect in 20 of Turkey's 67 provinces, was imposed nationwide. A curfew was declared, and frontiers and airports were closed. The generals dissolved parliament, banned all political and trade union activity, and announced that they would...
...near paralysis of government that forced the military's hand. With Demirel unable to muster a majority in parliament and with Ecevit anxious to foil him at every turn, the legislature has not been able to enact a law for at least six months. Its efforts to elect a new President have stretched unsuccessfully-and somewhat comically-over more than 100 ballots. Even a package of antiterrorist measures supported by both men has sunk into the partisan quicksand. Demirel's right-center party could probably win a majority if Turks went to the polls tomorrow, but Ecevit...
...town of Fatsa, where a leftist government had assumed power with the help of an underground revolutionary group and was running things its own way. Sadly, the country's political leaders have been unable to unite completely in the face of the terrorist tide. Premier Süleyman Demirel and Opposition Leader Bülent Ecevit have distrusted each other for years. Late last week the two leaders huddled privately and managed to agree to support a limited package of new antiterrorist legislation. Otherwise, they have so far refused even to cooperate in the election of a new President...
...which the army administers martial law. Moreover, intervention by the army would upset Turkey's Western allies, which are in no mood to tolerate a military dictatorship in a NATO country. A coup would also jeopardize the flow of Western aid and bank credits, key factors in Demirel's effort to prop up Turkey's sagging economy...