Word: ecevit
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...long as hundreds of Bhutto district leaders and party officials remain under arrest and barred from organizing demonstrations. Appeals for commutation of the sentence came from President Carter, British Prime Minister James Callaghan, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev and Pope John Paul II. Another petitioner was Premier Bulent Ecevit of Turkey, the only country in modern times to have hanged its own Prime Minister by judicial process.* Ecevit offered Bhutto asylum if his life was spared...
...left-wing Alevi teachers who had been gunned down by unknown assailants. A throng of 3,000 right-wing demonstrators blocked the procession's route. In the fighting that followed, three Sunnis were killed. Then the Sunnis began looting, burning and killing. Local R.P.P. deputies frantically cabled Premier Ecevit that "under an R.P.P government even our own people cannot be sure of protection in our headquarters...
...Sunni-Alevi split has been worsened by the left-right division of Turkish politics. In order to maintain his parliamentary majority, Ecevit has had to deal cautiously with extremist sentiment while carrying out a left-of-center program. Although the Premier was successful in ending the 3½-year-long U.S. arms embargo against Turkey, lifted last August, he also made some friendly overtures to the U.S.S.R. The gestures toward the Soviets have exacerbated feelings among extremist Ecevit opponents. One slogan shouted by Sunnis last week: COMMUNISTS TO MOSCOW...
Only one of 539 Turkish deputies voted in a rowdy session against Ecevit's martial law decision. But other difficulties still fester. Turkey is faced with burdensome problems of underdevelopment and even potential bankruptcy. Among the woes: a national debt of $10.6 billion, a 70% annual inflation rate and 20% unemployment in a work force of 16.4 million...
...Said Ecevit last week: "Whatever our differences of opinion, everyone must do his best to call out to his own followers for peace." At week's end, Ecevit's countrymen seemed to be heeding that plea His government was not expected to topple-if only because no one else seemed to be willing to take on Ecevit's painful responsibilities...