Short-Term Answer for Turkey

Turkey’s political bosses have settled on an old warhorse, Bulent Ecevit, as the new prime minister, one who will carry the country forward to April’s elections. It’s a sensible decision, blessed by President Suleyman Demirel and, clearly, the Turkish army. The decision pays off for Ecevit and his political allies by establishing a front to forestall parliamentary gains by the Islam-based Virtue Party, the country’s largest, whose tenets are antithetical to the secular foundations of modern Turkey.

Ecevit, 73, heads the Democratic Left Party, a small player in the parliament. But the new prime minister casts a long shadow. When Ecevit held the same office in 1974, he oversaw Turkey’s invasion of northern Cyprus. More recently he has been a critic of American support of Kurdish rebels in Iraq, fearing that success for them could bolster Kurdish hostility to Ankara’s rule in Turkey’s eastern provinces.

Foreign policy, however, was not the trigger for this week’s political changes. It was the strong whiff of corruption in the regime headed by Mesut Yilmaz, Ecevit’s predecessor. The new government, Turkey’s sixth in five years, has the backing of two key parties in addition to Ecevit’s Democratic Left. All three support strong ties with Europe and the United States.

Washington views Turkey as an anchor of NATO and an ally. Turkish regimes look for much wider regard, mainly full acceptance in Europe. Ecevit’s government is unlikely to be around long enough to achieve that goal, but its performance could help change minds and open opportunities down the road.