 It's time for the Lawn Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a presentation of the Lawn Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Lawn Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope? From the CBS television news staff, Larry Lusser and Ned Kalmer. Our distinguished guest for this evening is His Excellency Ambassador Salem Safer, head of the Turkey's delegation to the United Nations. Ambassador Safer, the president of Turkey, is arriving in this country tomorrow on his first visit to the United States. But before we ask anything about his mission here, I wonder if you'd tell us something about Turkey, its size, its population, perhaps its political system? Well, then I will begin with the second part of your question. Turkey has an area of about 750,000 square kilometers. And according to a census which was taken in 1950, the population is just a little over 21 millions. Our political system is a democratic republic. We have a one-house parliament, which is elected by the people once in every four years by secret ballots. And the president of the republic is elected by the parliament from among its members for the same term of four years. Well, he's more like the prime minister than the president of this country is. Well, no. Precisely. That was the point I wanted to make. Then the president of the republic designates the prime minister, who in turn chooses his ministers, the members of his cabinet. And the prime minister has to go to the parliament with his program, and his program and his government had to be approved by the parliament before they can function. And if necessary, they would have to ask every now and then for a vote of confidence. They might have. They don't do it often, not in our country. Anyway, we are not fortunately in that position. What is the president's term of office? The president's term of office is four years, just exactly like the term of the parliament itself, which elects the president. So that's the difference between the president of the United States and the president of Turkey. The president of the United States is both the head of the state and the head of the government. Whereas in Turkey, the president of the republic is the head of the state and the prime minister is the head of the government. Well, Turkey, of course, is a member of the North Atlantic fact, Ambassador Sopper. But could you tell us something about its strategic position in the Cold War? Well, it is a little difficult to say much about the strategical position of any country in what you call, quote, the Cold War, unquote. But in a general way, it may be said that the strategical position and the potentialities of Turkey are of utmost importance for the defense of the West and for the defense of the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The Cold War, of course, we deplore that like the rest of our allies. But we have to stand firm. Mr. Ambassador, one of the things I think that will interest Americans most of all... Yes, Muck. ...old by all means, I'm sure, is the position of Turkey in reference to Russia. How is the Soviet, the new Soviet attitude under Malenkov, affecting relations with Turkey? Well, of course, after the death of Stalin, there was a softening of the Soviet policy towards Turkey. Exactly like the softening which took place towards other countries, which we witnessed almost everywhere. But I think that it isn't the interest of the peace of the world to be very cautious about that sort of softening of the policy. And we should wait and see whether suitable solutions can be found to the major problems which are still pending. In other words, the Turks are just as skeptical as we are. Well, let's call it cautious. And what about these reports that we're always having, or that is to say that we periodically get about vast concentrations of Soviet troops on the Turkish frontiers? How much is there in that kind of story? Well, I don't know, but I am rather inclined to believe that that is a part of what you call the Cold War. I don't think that there has been much increase of the Soviet troops along the Turkish border for the last, let's say, year or two. Of course, I am not an expert in military affairs, I don't know, but that's a feeling I have. Ambassador Sopper, your President's visit to the White House will mock the first time I think that a Democrat president is visiting the head of the Republican Party in this country. Now, is there any similarity between the Democratic Party of Turkey and the Democrats here and the Republican Party? Well, yes, in a way, but otherwise I think that the names of all parties in Turkey, you know that the party in power now is the Democratic Party in Turkey. The founder of the party happens to be President Bayar, who is arriving tomorrow to the United States. And in the elections of May 1950, they came to power. And the Democratic Party is really democratic in the real sense of the word. Was it as conservative or more conservative than the Republican Party? No, by far not. On the contrary, I may say that at least in this economic policy, the Democratic Party is liberal and very firmly convinced that we should be and remain allies of Western democracies, United States and the rest of our major allies and others, the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Well, your Democratic Party and your Republican Party agree on foreign policy, but domestic policy do they differ? Well, on foreign policy they agree, there's no doubt about that. And when the former party, the party of opposition today was in power before 1950, the Democrats were in their position. They too had agreed with the foreign policy of the Turkish governments. So I may say that the foreign policy of the present government is a national policy. By the way, you pronounced the name of the president a few moments ago. Would you pronounce it again because we're going to have to be using it on news programs from now on? And he arrives tomorrow. He arrives tomorrow, we hope, towards four o'clock. Mr. Ambassador, the Turkey has undergone a tremendous modernization job in the last generation, seems to me. Your people, the women, for example, have received rights that were denied them for very long. How does the position of the Turkish woman in modern life compare with the position, for example, of the woman in America or in England? Well, if I may say a few words before I come to your question to that point, you might be surprised to hear from me that the Turkish woman, the Turkish woman, in the early Turkish society, let's say before the Ottoman Empire in the ninth and tenth centuries, had equal rights and equal duties with men. For example, if I may call so, the ambassadors from other tribes or neighboring countries were received both by the Han and the Hatun, let's just say the ruler and his wife. And later on, after the Ottoman Empire, when the empire began to extend to its east and west, we came in contact with other societies in which the status of women were lower than that of the men, so that influenced the Turkish society to the detriment of the rights of women. But later on, and after the Turkish Revolution in the times of Kemal Atatürk, in 1926, 1930, and 1935, different laws were accepted in the past, which gave women, respectively, their rights in the family thirst and then in municipal or mayoral elections, as you may call it, and then in the whole country as a whole. So that today, women have exactly the same rights as men in Turkey. Any man or woman over 22 has the right to vote, and any man or woman over 30 has the right to be elected to the parliament. Women have played very prominent roles in Turkey now as members of parliament, as lawyers, judges, medical doctors. They've completely given up the veil, have they? Yes, engineers, and so on and so forth. Ambassador Sopper has a final question I'd like to ask you. How do the people of Turkey actually feel about the American people and towards the United States government? Well, Mr. Leserp, Turkey is one of the countries where you cannot hear or read on the walls these unpleasant words, quote, American go home. We can't see that in Turkey. Turks and Americans have many things in common. For example, we don't have and we never had before an aristocratic society class in Turkey. The Turk and the American have more or less the same kind of sense of humor. We know how to laugh. We know how to make fun of ourselves. Thank you very much, Ambassador Sopper. It's been a great privilege to have you here tonight. Thank you. The opinions that you've heard our speakers express tonight have been entirely their own. The editorial board for this edition of the Long Gene Chronoscope was Larry Leserp and Ned Kalmer. Our distinguished guest was His Excellency Ambassador Salem Sopper, head of the Turkish delegation to the United Nations. 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