Early this year, Aziz Nesin led a group of people who drafted a petition which was signed by 1,383 intellectuals. The petition, entitled ‘Observations and Demands for a Democratic System in Turkèy’, was delivered to the office of President Kenan Evren and to Mr Necmettin Karaduman, the Speaker of the National Assembly, on 16 May. At first there was a news blackout about the petition, but later, when a foreign correspondent asked Prime Minister Turgut Ozal at his monthly press conference in June about this petition, the blackout was lifted. An inquiry on the petitioners was soon started by the military authorities. At a public rally in his home town in Manisa province on 28 May, President Kenan Evren launched a violent attack on the petitioners. He accused them of being ‘traitors’ who wanted to embarrass Turkey abroad with their allegations of disrespect of human rights in the country. In his speech President Evren accused the petitioners of wanting books on Fascism, Marxism, Leninism and Maoism to be published freely in the country. ‘All they want is to see a new generation of young people poisoned by reading such publications,’ the President said. ‘The other things that they want are freedom for the press and the autonomy of Turkish Radio and Television. First of all,’ continued the President, ‘I wish to point out that we have nothing against press freedom, but we are now under martial law. The whole nation has witnessed how the Communists made good use of Turkish radio and television before September 1980.’ President Evren also said: ‘These people who call themselves intellectuals claim their views are the only right ones. Your thoughts and mine are not important to them. Only they know what is best. We have seen too many such intellectuals who have chosen to flee the country in the end… What can I do with such intellectuals?” Many Turkish observers believe President Evren's speech in Manisa has greatly influenced the outcome of the inquiries by the military authorities. Aziz Nesin and 55 other leading intellectuals who signed the petition have now been charged with ‘acting against the orders of the martial law authorities’. They face a new prison sentence of from three to six months.