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Türkiye on Tuesday marked the 64th anniversary of the executions of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and two of his ministers, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan, following the 1960 military coup, a day widely regarded as one of the darkest chapters in the country’s democratic history.
Menderes, whose Democrat Party swept to power with 52.7% of the vote in 1950, governed for a decade and is remembered for liberalizing the economy, expanding religious freedoms by ending the ban on the Arabic call to prayer, and steering Türkiye into NATO membership in 1952. His populist slogan, “Enough, the nation has the word,” earned him lasting popularity as “the people’s man.”
On May 27, 1960, a group of officers calling themselves the National Unity Committee seized power, dissolved Parliament and detained leading officials, including President Celal Bayar and Prime Minister Menderes. Trials were held on Yassıada Island, where Menderes and other officials faced charges ranging from constitutional violations to mishandling unrest.
On Sept. 15, 1961, a special court sentenced 15 men to death. The junta approved three of the executions: Foreign Minister Zorlu and Finance Minister Polatkan were hanged in the early hours of Sept. 16, followed by Menderes the next day on Imralı Island. Bayar’s sentence was commuted due to age.
The executions shocked the nation, and in 1990, Türkiye Parliament formally restored the trio’s honor. Their remains were moved to a state memorial in Istanbul. Yassıada, where the trials were held, was later renamed Democracy and Freedoms Island.
