General Rebuff

Millions vote for democracy

To the surprise of Turkey's military rulers, a careful experiment in guided democracy veered slightly out of control last week. In the nation's first elections since the armed forces took power in 1980, the wrong man won--at least in the eyes of the military. The victor and new Prime Minister was Turgut Ozal, 56, a portly, easygoing former engineer whose conservative Motherland Party romped home with 45% of the 18.3 million votes and 211 seats in the 400-member Grand National Assembly. Said Hasan Esat Isik, a former Minister of Defense: "The Turkish people have shown they do not want guided or even inspired democracy."

Only two days before the vote, President Kenan Evren, leader of the military coup three years ago, implicitly urged support for another candidate, retired General Turgut Sunalp, whose Nationalist Democracy Party was supposed to mop up Turkey's heavy right-wing vote. Instead, Sunalp's party straggled in a poor third with 23% of the vote, behind the moderate leftist Populist Party, which scored 30%.

Ozal's electoral victory hardly represented a challenge to a regime whose consititution, approved in a landslide referendum last year, has strengthened Evren's presidential powers. Most Turks remain deeply grateful for the 1980 military intervention, which ended a nightmarish period of political terrorism, parliamentary paralysis and economic chaos. For his part, Ozal quickly showed his eagerness to cooperate fully with Evren and the four other senior military officers on the ruling National Security Council. In his first statement to the nation after the vote, Ozal hanked the Turkish armed forces for 'their efforts to establish law-and-order in the country and to restore democracy."

To Turks accustomed to their country's tradition of rough-and-tumble politics, the election campaign was a strangely sedate affair. Candidates were not allowed to hurl accusations at each other or criticize the regime. Political wall posters and graffiti were banned, and party members could display their loyalties only with discreet lapel pins. Virtually all politicians who had held elected office prior to the 1980 coup, including former Prime Ministers Buelent Ecevit and Siileyman Demirel, were forbidden to run. More than 500 of the candidates for seats in parliament were stricken from the ballot without explanation.

Ozal, however, may be just the kind of new blood that Turkey needs. He and his chief aides are technocrats who want to apply the best computer-age methods to politics. Ozal's greatest appeal to the voters lay in his record in dealing with the economy. As an undersecretary in the last civilian government, and subsequently Deputy Prime Minister in the military administration, he orchestrated an austerity program from 1980 to 1982 that brought inflation down to 30%, from an annual rate of 120%, while tripling the value of Turkish exports. In the future, Ozal told TIME Correspondent Roberto Suro and Reporter Mehmet Ali Kislali last week, "we have to act quickly to stimulate exports and to facilitate investment both domestically and from abroad. We also want to minimize government interference in the economy because a good free market economy will make the best use of our resources."

When Ozal takes office later this month, his powers will include the right to end the three-year state of martial law. But he will still be operating under the watchful eyes of Turkey's generals. Well aware of that fact, Ozal says that he intends to be "very careful. We should not let anarchy return to Turkey. But everybody should agree that martial law is not permanent." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.