Word: ankara
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...appointment was a clever move by Husak, who fears that outright persecution of Dubček and his liberal followers would plunge the country into deeper political and economic trouble. In Ankara, Dubček will be conveniently removed from Czechoslovakia, where he remains by far the most popular political figure. As an ambassador, Dubček will be duty-bound to carry out the orders of his political opponents in Prague. In the highly unlikely event that Dubček should decide to defect to the West, Husak could portray the act as one of political treachery...
...Duties. In mid-December, when the Czechoslovaks sounded out Ankara about accepting Dubček, the Turkish government responded with wholehearted approval. Dubček is something of a hero to many Turks. Because of the extraordinary appeal of Dubček's brand of "Socialism with a human face," the Czechoslovaks could not send him to another Soviet-bloc nation. They apparently chose Turkey because of its established reputation for suppressing foreign political intrigues...
Ambassador Dubček, who initially resisted the appointment, will find few pressing diplomatic problems between Ankara and Prague. The embassy has only a seven-man staff, and Dubček's main duty will consist of overseeing Czechoslovakia's $44 million in trade with Turkey. Meanwhile, the campaign against liberals continued in Prague. Josef Smrkovsky, the former president of the National Assembly who was Dubček's closest ally, was stripped of membership in the federal legislature, his last state function. Ten other liberals were also forced to resign, thus virtually completing the purge...
...Kursat made a special trip to pay his respects. Kursat walked into the lobby of her hotel, sent a message to Callas announcing his arrival, and quickly received a reply: "I am tired and I don't want to talk to you." Thoroughly humiliated, Kursat flew back to Ankara, where he assured reporters that he had not been snubbed. But he added that he would make no further attempt to see Madame Callas. Said she: "The man does not understand etiquette...
...Ankara's airport, President Charles de Gaulle's opening remarks were lost on his hosts-because the official assigned to turn on the public-address system was asleep at the switch. Then De Gaulle noticed that his interpreter had got ahead of him. Nudging the man, De Gaulle growled, "I did not say that." Finally, the Turkish security police were no match for rampaging photographers, one of whom got his camera within two feet of the general's nose during the playing of the Marseillaise...