Turkey: Democracy and Freedom Island to be inaugurated

Scene of anti-democratic trials decades ago to get redemption under new name this year, says President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

By Berk Ozkan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's president said on Sunday said a new island of democracy and freedom will be inaugurated in waters near Istanbul by the end of the year.

Speaking to reporters on the island in the Sea of Marmara, Recep Tayyip Erdogan touted the renamed piece of land, remaking it from a infamous isle to an honorable one.

Turkey's Yassiada, one of the Princes' Islands, notorious for jails and trials from the 1960 military coup, in 2013 was renamed Democracy and Freedom Island.

Yassiada, once seen as a symbol of some of the darkest days of Turkish democracy, is located in the Sea of Marmara southeast of Istanbul.

The island is where Adnan Menderes, Turkey's first democratically elected prime minister, along with all the leading Democratic Party (DP) members, were arrested after the May 27, 1960 military coup and were later jailed and tried.

* Writing by Faruk Zorlu

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