Even to the most ardent supporter of Turkey's new military regime, the mass trial on Yassiada Island of hundreds of officials of the old civilian government seemed to be off to a shaky start. It was bad enough to begin with the trivial charge that ousted President Celal Bayar —onetime companion in arms to the late great Kemal Ataturk—had gypped the government in the sale of a shaggy dog. Last week the prosecution seemed intent on proving only that ex-Premier Adnan Menderes, married and the father of three sons, was indiscreetly fond of girls.
Careless Diva. The girl in the case was Turkish Opera Singer Ayhan Aydan, now a plumpish, red-haired 36. In 1951, just after her divorce from Ankara State Orchestra Conductor Ferit Alnar, Ayhan caught the eye of Menderes at a luncheon party. She was then a svelte 27, he a handsome and roving-eyed 52. In no time at all Premier Menderes was such a frequent caller at the singer's apartment that other tenants grew grumpily accustomed to being stopped and searched by bodyguards. Ayhan's apartment was kept plentifully stocked with Menderes' favorite Black Sea caviar and raki. For favors rendered, Menderes presented Ayhan with a black-lacquered American-style bar, a Buick of her own, and the use of a government limousine and chauffeur. By 1955 Menderes was spending more and more time with a new mistress, and Ayhan evidently decided that the way to hold him was to have a baby. Though she told investigators she had twice before been pregnant during her affair with the Premier, each time aborting, she now realized: "I loved him very much, I wanted to bear his child." When she went into labor, she hurriedly called Istanbul's Dr. Fahri Atabey, who had treated her in a previous interrupted pregnancy, asked him to come to Ankara in a hurry.
According to the prosecution, Dr. Atabey drove to Ayhan's Ankara apartment, arriving after the local doctor who delivered the baby had left, and put the baby to death under "encouragement" from Menderes. But the testimony in court was otherwise. Both Ayhan and Dr. Atabey said that he got there hours after the baby had died of natural causes.
Pretty Lace. Before calling Menderes, the prosecution attempted to set the scene by offering in evidence a pair of lace-trimmed silk panties found in his office safe in an envelope marked "historical records." Sneered Assistant Prosecutor Fahrettin Ozturk: "Now we know how tirelessly Menderes worked for the nation and why he used to say he was too busy to attend the National Assembly." On the stand, Menderes, haggard from five months' imprisonment, admitted to having had an affair with the singer, but denied being an accomplice to murder. "I never saw her face after the death of the baby. I was having a new affair, but we separated in a friendly way." Asked about his new inamorata, the old lover smiled broadly, "Let's forget about that." The audience laughed.