Pas de Deux

Dance of the Premiers

Rivalry for Turkey's prime-minister-ship has become an ongoing pas de deux. The dance began when Sueleyman Demirel, leader of the conservative Justice Party, was named Premier in April 1975. Two years later, Buelent Ecevit, head of the liberal Republican People's Party, elbowed him offstage. But Demirel replaced him in July 1977. Last week Ecevit again succeeded an embittered Demirel, and their stately duet became a throbbing hustle.

Calling his ouster "the first step toward destroying Turkish democracy," Demirel charged that his loss of a parliamentary vote of confidence by ten votes resulted from "the biggest intrigue of Turkish political history." The defeat was made possible by the resignation from Demirel's Justice Party of 13 members. They were annoyed because Demirel had refused to dismiss a so-called Mafia of arrogant party officials. "A group of incompetent Deputies is always around Demirel; you can't eliminate them," sniffed former Public Works Minister Orhan Alp, explaining his defection. Other J.P. members were angry at Cabinet ministers affiliated with the National Salvation Party, minority members of Demirel's ruling coalition. "They are treating us like second-class citizens," complained one. The dissidents were emboldened to defect after Ecevit's party won 100 of 150 contested urban mayoral posts in local elections last December; counting rural areas, Demirel's coalition won 50.7% of the total vote, a fact that added to Demirel's bitterness after his parliamentary defeat.

Turkey's latest political crisis interrupted negotiations with officials of the International Monetary Fund, who were seeking to help avert national bankruptcy --including a threatened cutoff of credit for petroleum shipments from Libya and Iraq; IMF officials tired of cooling their heels during the crisis and returned to the U.S. to await the organization of Ecevit's government. Currently, Turkey's inflation is 35%, and unemployment is a huge 20% of the labor force. The nation is also gripped by political terrorism involving extremists of both the left and the right --the latter thought to be encouraged by the ultrarightist Nationalist Action Party, which Demirel had been forced to include in his coalition.

Last week Ecevit said he contemplated no major foreign policy changes for Turkey, an important member of NATO, although he promised to give priority "to bringing about a final and viable solution" to Turkey's dispute with Greece over Cyprus. Ecevit submitted a list of 35 Cabinet ministers to President Fahri Ko-ruturk and urged his party workers to avoid public victory celebrations, arguing that his immediate priority was building a national consensus. "We don't want tension," an R.P.P. spokesman said. Ecevit offered Cabinet posts to most of the J.P. defectors, but even counting their votes it appeared that the new Premier has only a two-vote majority in Parliament--a margin that seems to offer too little stability to spare Turkey yet another invitation to the dance.

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