Turkey junta swings right

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A NEW lurch to the right by the Turkish military junta has brought the threat of 18 years in jail for a lawyer who committed the "crime" of petitioning for the release of à client - his brother!

Mr Buhan Apaydin had campaigned for the release of his brother Orhan Apaydin, who is President of the Istanbul Bar Association - and chief defence lawyer for the 52 trade unionists currently facing trial and possible death sentences for allegedly trying to overthrow the state.

Meanwhile the crackdown which began with known left wingers has widened to include arrests of over 40 liberal intellectuals including members of banned peace association.

And former Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit who has already served • a jail sentence for giving an interview to a SOP THE EXECUTONS AND TORTURES foreign newspaper now faces a further charge of speaking to Der Speigel and to Dutch Television.

Yet the vendetta of military prosecutor Suleyman Takkeci has been directed exclusively against left wing and liberal critics of the regime, while numerous fascists initially held under arrest have been released to pursue their violent attacks on the now illegal labour movement.

Having initially posed as an 'impartial' force, standing above contending political forces in the struggle for "order' , the junta of General Evren appears now to be contemplating a show-trial of leaders of Ecevit's liberalbourgeois Republican People's Party, while showing increasing tolerance of the fascist right.

It is plain that the Turkish labour movement faces a long and bitter struggle to win the most elementary democratic rights - a fight which can only be carried through with the overthrow of the junta and establishment of a workers' and peasants' government.

The British labour movement must assist this struggle. Contact the Turkey Solidarity Campaign, BM Box 5965, London WCIN 3XX.