Turkey: Erdogan remembers May 27, 1960 coup

By Busra Nur Bilgic

ANKARA - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday observed the 59th anniversary of Turkey's first-ever military coup.

“May 27, 1960 will be remembered as the first military coup and a black stain on Turkish history,” said Erdogan in a tweet.

He also remembered former Prime Minister Adnan Menderes who was executed after the coup.

“I remember late Adnan Menderes and his friends who were executed by the coup plotters,” Erdogan added.

The decade-long Democrat Party (DP) government was ousted by a military junta which arrested, tried and jailed all its leading members.

Accused of violating the constitution as well as embezzling money from state funds, they were put on trial by a military court on the island of Yassiada, located in the Sea of Marmara to the southeast of Istanbul.

Then-President Celal Bayar, Menderes, Foreign Minister Fatin Rustu Zorlu and Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan were sentenced to death. Bayar later received clemency from the sentence.