Although Turkey's military rulers tried to improve their image in late April by announcing that general elections would be held November 6, that announcement has been followed by increased repression against political figures, unions, leftist organizations, and Kurdish nationalists.
On May 6, the military junta passed a new law prohibiting unions from taking part in political activity, advocating Marxist ideas, or opposing the government or the unity of the nation.
On May 24, a military court presiding over the trial of 574 Kurdish nationalists sentenced 35 of them to death, 28 to life imprisonment. and 333 to jail terms of up to 36 years.
One day later, 2,000 Turkish troops entered Iraq to help that country's armed forces fight Kurdish nationalists there.
The Kurdish people are spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and the Soviet Union. They have waged numerous struggles for their national rights in Turkey, Iraq, and Iran.
On the same day Turkish troops entered Iraq, a martial law court in Istanbul issued death sentences against 9 alleged members of the leftist People's Revolutionary Vanguard, which is linked to the Turkish People's Liberation Front. They were charged with attempting to overthrow the state. Eight others had death sentences commuted to life imprisonment, and 40 received jail terms ranging up to 24 years.
Repression has been used against bourgeois political forces as well. Turkey's military rulers took 16 leading politicians into custody May 31 and ordered them into "forced residence" in the town of Canakkale until after the promised November 6 general election. But on June 1, military strongman Gen. Kenan Evren warned that the election might not take place at all if veteran politicians continue to try to get back into power through new political organizations. Evren wants an election that will cloak his military regime, not one that will interfere with it.
countries manifests itself in the work of the party jointly with public organizations.
The clear-cut orientation on general laws in the building of the new world and the creative application of these laws in specific conditions are the secret of the continued growing enthusiasm of the Cuban people and their devotion to the cause of the revolution. With the constant observance of the principle of criticism and self-criticism, this orientation is the cardinal guarantee that the Cuban people, led by the vanguard of the working class, the Communist Party, and united by internationalist solidarity with the peoples of fraternal countries and all other progressive forces in the world, will continue to emerge victorious in the struggle with the sinister forces of imperialism.
ces in Turkey
About 100 leaders of political parties banned after the September 1980 coup have been prohibited from taking part in political activity for 10 years.
Turkey's ruling generals also announced on June 4 that local martial law commanders have the power to expel from their areas any people they judge to be a threat to public order. The ruling also allows local commanders to confine people to their home districts or to force them to move to other districts. Those expelled from one area would be forced to remain for five years in another area designated by the Interior Ministry.
Since martial law was imposed in 1981, 23 people have been executed for political offenses. At least 135 are awaiting execution, and nearly 30,000 people have been sentenced to jail terms of more than 5 years.
An international campaign was launched April 11 by Amnesty International to save the lives of 7 members of Dev-Sol (Revolutionary Left) who were sentenced to death on April 7. Ahmet Erhan, Sadettin Guven, Harun Kartal, Tayfun Ozkok, Baki Altin, Aslan Sener Yildirim, and Ahmet Fazil were accused of assassinating a former prime minister and the Istanbul chief of police.
Their death sentences have already been upheld by the Consultative Assembly, but must still be approved by the National Security Council. Once that happens, they could be executed within hours.
Turkish activists fear that the execution of the 7 Dev-Sol members could open the way to a wave of further executions.
Messages urging the overturning of these death sentences have been sent to General Evren by two members of the U.S. Congress, three members of the British Parliament, and by the parliamentary group of the Pacifist Party in the Netherlands.
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