TURKEY: TORIES ADMIRE THE GENERALS REGIME

It is difficult to obtain information about the condition of political prisoners in Turkey. During November and December, 1972, an Amnesty International Mission (headed by Mr Muir Hunter QC) visited Turkey to inquire into alle. gations of torture.

They were permitted to see only one prisoner-likay Demir, an inmate of Sagmalcilar Women's prison. Although the Mission submitted a list of prisoners they wished to see—including 13 other inmates of Sagmalcilar Women's Prison-they were allowed to see no others.

The prisoners whom they did not see included:

In Ankara's Mamak No 1 Prison; Irfan Ucar, Nuri Colacoglu, Ertugrul Kurkcu.

In Ankara Women's Prison; Nergis Savran, Tulay Tad, Behice Boran.

In Istanbul's Sagmalcilar Men's Prison; Mustafa Laciner, Yalcin Ozturk, Murat Belge, Sadik Akincilar, Yilmaz Guney.

In Sagmalcilar Women's Prison; Azel Incili, Ulker Akgol, Bilge Dicleli, Lale Arikdal, Selma Veyisoglu, Ferdane Yurtsever, Nazife Kaya, Elif Gonul Tolon, Julide Ayse Emel Mesci, Kadriye Deniz Ozen, Ruchan Manas.

reason given by the Turkish authorities was that all these prisoners were under military, not civil, control.

But when the Mission saw Ilkay Demir on November 29, she claimed they were being kept out of sight because they had recently been tortured.

In Selimiye Prison; Sarp Kuray, Necmi Demir, Talat Turan, Mehmet Alkaya, Orhan Sakasci, Yilmaz Guney, Munir Aktologa, Yusef Kupeli.

In Daoudpasa Prison; Ilhan Selcuk, Ilhami Soysal, Dogan Avcioglu, ( Fahri Ariel, Mete Sonmez, Munir Aktologa.

Although the interview was conducted in the presence of the prison authorities, Ilkay Demir spoke up with great courage.

She confirmed that, as a former medical student at Capa hospital, she had personally tended the wounded feet of her husband Necmi and of Irfan Ucar and a number of women prisoners resulting from the 'falanga' to which they had been subjected. Covered in blood She confirmed that the floor of the 'torture room' was covered in blood and that the wounded feet had been examined by a Dr Garabet Arman, whom she recognized as being on the staff of Capa hospital. When asked for medical certificates about the wounds, however, Dr Arman has refused to provide them.

She described different types of falanga frames in use —one in which the feet were police station after being beaten.

More evidence of torture was revealed in a report published by the Sunday Times 'Insight' team last December.

This disclosed the treatment of Sadik Akincilar, lawyer who had defended members of the Turkish People's Liberation Army. On April 3, 1971, Akincilar was arrested by plain clothes policemen and taken to the police station. He was later blindfolded and driven to another building and brought before an Army MajorGeneral.

He underwent beatings, falanga and electric shock torture until he 'confessed' to the required crimes.

Another case was that of a 22-year-old girl Ulker Akgol. She was tortured by Falanga for two hours and had police truncheons inserted into her Most of the torture allegations were directed against the Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT) and a semi-official, military, counterguerrilla organization called 'Commando B'.

A regular pattern seems to emerge. First there is arrest by civilian police, followed by torture at the hands of the military or counter-intelligence, then 'confessions' and finally a return to the civilian authorities for formal arrest and trial.

Despite its extreme brutality, the Turkish regime is much loved by the British Pailanentay initiong hould emite the any in which our Tuitionde hav been able to rian theit parllamentary Institutions.' Tory government. When questions were asked in the British Parliament about the tortures going on in Turkey, Secretary of State Julian Amery,_replying on behalf of Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home, said:

I prefer to pay tribute to the enormous efforts made by the Turkish political parties to ensure that parliamentary government is preserved. I believe we should admire the way in which our Turkish friends have been able to retain parliamentary institutions.' When that statement was made there were 1,135 people in Turkish jails under the jurisdiction of the martial law authorities. And that was according to official figures from the Turkish government!

Alec Douglas-Home himself, Telegraph' of April 2, 1972. In an editorial called Sane Man of Europe', this Tory paper gloated at the shooting down of members of the TPLA and claimed that the Turkish rulers could teach the British 'the arts of governThis editorial is worth quoting in full to show the bloodlust of the British right wing:

If there was a Michelin Guide for terrorists instead of for tourists, Turkey would be categorized as "worth a détour" to avoid. Nowhere else in the western world do the state authorities give an impression of such decisive determination to resist blackmail and to strike back without any agonized searching of the liberal conscience. forces of anarchy and subversion, by a willingness on the part of lawful authority to cave in to violence than it is by any danger of excessively brutal repression or tyranny.

'In the 19th century most of the western world had little to learn from Turkey which was justly regarded as the "sick man of Europe." But today it demonstrates a will to survive and to preserve its institutions which in a body politic is the true mark of health and vitality.

'Who would have thought, a hundred years ago, that Turkey would ever have much to teach Britain about the arts of government? Yet today it is fast becoming the model to which many eyes are turned with growing envy and admiration. In a world challenged