Word: gursel
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...that has been running Turkey since the May 27 revolution-the police presented documents, with blunt instructions to sign them immediately. As they complied, the officers found themselves simultaneously resigning from the Unity Committee and retiring from the army. Thus neatly did Turkey's boss, laconic General Cemal Gursel, purge the 14 men who had been opposing his plans to restore democracy to Turkey...
...rank from captain to colonel, in political views from fuzzy neutralist to near Fascist. As leaders of the revolution, they had an important voice within the Unity Committee, and had used it to support the notion that the army had a mission to continue running Turkey. On occasion, to Gursel's dismay, they carried the day within the committee for such highhanded measures as the summary firing last month of 147 university professors suspected of antiarmy sentiments...
Lately, the clique had pushed not only for a three-year postponement of elections but for passage of a law setting up an army-run bureau to control the press, education, religion and culture. At that, Gursel decided to move. "Recent commit tee discussions have taken the form rather of open war than of constructive exchanges," he explained later. "In a democracy, it is necessary to have the self-restraint to abide by a majority decision." With his control of top army commands, Gursel managed to get rid of the 14 relatively junior officers without resistance-though he prudently disconnected...
...makes sense, but it has also raised unemployment and brought on a mild business recession. Unaccustomed to such tight money, Turkey's merchants have had to dig into their gold hoards to meet current costs. Farmers, promised cement and sugar-beet plants by Menderes, now talk openly against Gursel when there are no soldiers around. There is grumbling, too, over the fact that the army is still making occasional arrests for "antirevolutionary activities," a vague charge theoretically punishable by death and thus a powerful damper on the right to dissent...
Late last week, in apparent reaction to the mounting unrest, Gursel and his junta abruptly fired ten of Turkey's 17 civilian Cabinet ministers (one key man retained: able Foreign Minister Selim Sarper). Blandly, General Gursel explained that "these men carried burdens for three months, and now it is felt that others should take over." The old Cabinet was admittedly ill-trained and uninspiring, largely because Gursel bars from office any official who has ties to either the Democratic or Republican parties. But for the same reason, superior replacements are likely to be hard to find. General Gursel, like...