UPDATE - 1960 coup in Turkey ‘birthday of tutelage’: Communications director

UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS BY ALTUN, OTHER SPEAKERS; REVISES HEADLINE, LEDE; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Sena Guler

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s director of communications said Thursday that the 1960 coup in the country was the starting point of a period that witnessed a few coups.

"It would not be wrong to refer to the coup of 1960 'the birthday of the tutelage', as the era of coups, beginning with the violation of the principle of sovereignty, lasted for many years,” Fahrettin Altun said in his opening speech at a virtual meeting – titled Assault on the Nation’s Will: International Conference on May 27, 1960.

Marking the 61st anniversary of the coup, Altun noted the Turkish nation would always remember and remain grateful to then Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan and Foreign Minister Fatin Rustu Zorlu, who were executed by the military junta after show trials on the island of Yassiada.

The coup of 1960 paved the way for military coup by memorandum in 1971, coup of 1980 and the military memorandum of 1997, he said.

“Democrat Party and its successor social-political movements represented national will against tutelage regime. However, these movements were confronted through coups,” said Altun.

He underscored that the coups also undermined Turkey’s economic development and foreign policy interests.

Turkey has become “an island of safety and stability” in the region under the leadership of its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Altun said, adding: “There is no more room within our borders for the terrorist organizations and illegal structures to act."

After a biased and illegal trial on the Yassiada island, the country’s president Celal Bayar, prime minister, finance minister and foreign minister were sentenced to death.

Bayar later received clemency from the sentence.

Yassiada, one of the Princes' Islands located in the Sea of Marmara southeast of Istanbul, is notorious for jails and trials from the 1960 military coup. It was renamed Democracy and Liberties Island in 2013.

Last year, Erdogan inaugurated Democracy and Liberties Island.

The island, leaving its dark history behind, has been converted into a congress center and open-air museum and is available for daily visits.

Democracy and Liberties Island has two main functions. First, it is a memorial to the Menderes era.

Moreover, the island hosts national and international democracy and human rights meetings, and the experiences in this area are shared on a global level.

- Island dedicated to Menderes era

The hall where the trial was held was converted into the May 27 Museum. It exhibits the documents, chairs and microphones used during the trial as well as wax sculptures.

Another structure on the island -- the “Democracy and Liberties Museum,” covering a 7,768-square-meter area -- conveys the world’s experience of democracy and history of human rights.

A documentary is also shown in the hall.

The island also showcases sculptures and objects in open spaces.

At least 40,000 trees were planted on the island, while the existing trees and registered buildings are protected.

It also has a library, exhibition hall, viewing terraces and Democracy Park.

The 24-meter-long Democracy Lantern symbolizes the transition from darkness to light and the future of democracy.

- US was not surprised by coup

Christopher Gunn, a lecturer at the University of Coastal Carolina, spoke about the international perspective on the coup and said there was a myth until 10 years ago that the US was not aware of the coup, and that it was surprised by that.

“The myth that the US was taken by surprise [by the coup] is not true,” Gunn said, adding: “The US clearly knew that a coup was pending in May of 1960.”

“Turkey was too important to the US and to the NATO alliance for them to have been taken by surprise by the events of May 1960,” he said, adding that the Turkish army is the second largest army in NATO.

Gunn said the army was equipped with US financial support, and there were 26 US and NATO bases as well as over 13,000 US military personnel in Turkey in 1960.

*Contributions by Ahmet Gencturk​​​​​​​