Turkey remembers Turkes on his 22nd death anniversary

By Esin Isik

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey commemorated Alparslan Turkes, nationalist leader and major right-wing political figure, on the 22nd year of his death on Thursday.

Born in 1917 in Lefkosa, the capital of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Turkes moved to Istanbul in 1933 to study at Kuleli Military High School, Turkey’s oldest such institution.

He graduated in 1936 as a sub-lieutenant, going on to Ankara to enroll in the Military Academy where he completed his studies in 1938.

In 1944, he was jailed for at least nine months on charges of racism for which he was promptly acquitted and freed.

Alongside some 15 Turkish military officers, Turkes spent two years in the U.S. where he attended a war academy.

In 1955, he graduated from the Turkish Military Academy as a staff major.

Upon completion of his training, Turkes was appointed to the Turkish mission to NATO in the U.S. Department of Defense.

In 1957 he returned to Turkey from where he was sent to Germany to study in the fields of atomic and nuclear science in 1959, then was promoted to staff colonel in the Turkish army.

- The 1960 coup

On the morning of May 27, 1960, Turkes' voice boomed over radio’s across Turkey declaring the country’s first successful coup.

The leader of Turkey's Democrat Party (DP) and then-premier Adnan Menderes was executed after the 1960 military coup by the so-called National Unity Committee.

Turkes was a member of this committee, which had been founded to overthrow the elected government.

He served as prime ministerial undersecretary in the junta government and founded several public offices such as the State Planning Organization and State Institute of Statistics.

In November 1960, Turkes and his companions were disbanded from the National Unity Committee over internal disputes and he was appointed to the Turkish embassy in India for three years before returning to Turkey.

He was remanded in 1963 for having links to the putsch and jailed for four months in Ankara, soon to be was acquitted.

- Turkes and the MHP

Turkes joined the Republican Villager Nation Party in 1965 and was selected the party head then.

In 1969, the Republican Villager Nation Party was renamed the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) with its logo was changing to depict the current three crescents representing the Pan-Turkist movement.

Turkes founded the MHP in 1969 and remained its leader until his death in 1997.

MHP chief Turkes served as deputy premier and state minister in coalition governments throughout the mid-1970s.

During another military coup in 1980, Turkes surrendered himself to the Turkish forces and was jailed for more than four years.

The Sept. 12, 1980, military coup led by General Kenan Evren -- chief of general staff -- was known as the bloodiest military intervention in Turkey's history, during which a group of generals seized power after years of political unrest that claimed hundreds of lives.

Turkes, released in April 1985, was not among the 218 nationalists whose execution had been sought by the military prosecutors.

In 1987, his ban from politics was lifted and Turkes returned to the helm of his party until he died of a heart attack in 1997.

Despite his death, Turkes is still regarded as one of the most important political figures for Turkey and the nationalist movement of which he is seen as a founding father.

His party is still seen as the vanguard of nationalist politics in Turkey under its current leader, Devlet Bahceli.