Setback to Iran's President

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THE Majlis, the Iranian parliament, has votea to reject the nomination of Ali Akbar Vilayati to replace the previous Prime Minister, who unexpectedly resigned on October 15th after three weeks in office.

Vilayati, an Islamic fundamentalist trained in the US as a doctor, had been the choice of President Khameini.

The Islamic Republican Party, which totally dominates the Majlis, would normally be expected to support the President's nomTHE RECENT decision by the mid-Cheshire Trades Council to affiliate to the Turkey Solidarity. Campaign marks an important break from its routinist, bureaucratic, non-political past.

The unanimous decision came after a strong intervention by members of the local Council of Action, who described the effects of General Evren's coup on the Turkish trade unions in the past twelve months.

IN an effort to impress 'world, opinion' with his democratic intentions, General Kenan Even last week opened the first session of Turkey's Consultative Assembly.

This hand-picked rabble replaces the elected Parliament that Evren's coup abolished over a year ago.

The EEC certainly wasn impressed though it doesn't take much to imp.

them. All political parties were banned in the resS.

same week, and former inee, and his rejection indicates divisions within the IRP. But there is no sharp clash - Ayatollah Khomeini praised the 'spirit of independence of the Majlis.

The silence of the western press on the matter of executions and torture in Iran - a silence so starkly in contrast with the outcry when American hostages were held in Iran - is likely to be broken somewhat now that the Khomeini regime has begun a wide scale purge of intelThe decision was swiftly followed by the drafting of two letters of protest, one to General Evren in Ankara and the other to the Turkish Embassy in London.

Several delegates also signed the petition to the British Home Office supporting Turkish socialist Dogan Tarkan's appeal for political asylum.

Winsford Council Action has also agreed affiliate.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit is to be brought to trial for violating a military decree which barred him from making political statements.

As a result, the Common Market from £360 millionworth of financial aid to Turkey. No doubt, bowever, with the victory of the Left in the Greek elections.

the US will rush aid to Turkey in any case.

Turkey is already the world's biggest recipient of foreign aid. lectuals and writers, many of whom are well known in the West.

Some of those arrested have no record of left-wing activity, but among those seized last week was Reza Baraheni, a long-term opponent of the Shah, founder in the US of the Committee for Artistic and Intellectual Freedom in Iran.

Baraheni is well-known the author of "The Crowned Cannibals' , an account of torture in the Shah's jails including his own 102 days' detention.