Coup d'état (1960) in Turkey

Coup d'état (1960) in Turkey
Title	Coup d'état (1960) in Turkey
Date	27 May 1960
Place	Ankara, Istanbul, İzmir
Result	Overthrow of the Democrat Party government; establishment of the National Unity Committee
Combatants	Turkish Armed Forces (organizers) vs. Democrat Party administration
Leaders	Cemal Gürsel, Alparslan Türkeş, Fahri Özdilek, Süleyman Demirel
Fatalities	Dozens

Coup d'état (1960) in Turkey was a military intervention that toppled the ruling Democrat Party on 27 May 1960. The action removed Adnan Menderes, Fuat Köprülü, and Suat Hayri Ürgüplü-era officials and installed the National Unity Committee under Cemal Gürsel. The coup reshaped institutions such as the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the Constitution of 1961, and relationships with NATO, United States, and regional actors.

Background

By 1960 Turkey had experienced rapid political conflict between the Democrat Party leadership of Adnan Menderes and opposition parties such as the Republican People's Party (CHP), led by İsmet İnönü. Tensions intensified over interventions involving the Turkish Armed Forces, the Ankara University academic community, and civil society institutions including the Turkish Workers' Union affiliates and the Bar Associations of Turkey. Economic disputes involving Marshall Plan aid legacies, balance-of-payments crises, and disputes with the International Monetary Fund aggravated conflicts between Democrat Party ministers and technocrats trained at Harvard University, London School of Economics, and Bocconi University. Press restrictions affecting newspapers such as Cumhuriyet, Milliyet, and Hürriyet provoked legal clashes in courts presided over by judges trained at Istanbul University Faculty of Law and fueled protests in Istanbul, Ankara, and provincial capitals like Samsun and Adana.

Military dissatisfaction emerged within elements tied to the Turkish Land Forces, Turkish Naval Forces, and Turkish Air Force, influenced by officer education at War Academies (Ottoman) successors and staff colleges linked to NATO training missions. Figures associated with the National Unity Committee had interactions with alumni networks from Kuleli Military High School and the Turkish Military Academy. Internal debates referenced constitutionalism under the Constitution of 1924 and comparisons with coups in Greece, Pakistan, and postwar interventions in France and Italy.

The Coup and Military Council

In the early hours of 27 May 1960, units under officers including Cemal Gürsel, Alparslan Türkeş, Fahri Özdilek, and other colonels seized key installations: Ankara Radio, Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and airbases near Eskişehir. The coup leaders formed the National Unity Committee which assumed executive and legislative authority, suspended the Constitution of 1924, and dissolved cabinets led by Adnan Menderes and deputy premiers tied to Suat Hayri Ürgüplü alignments. The committee placed Adnan Menderes, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, and Hasan Polatkan under arrest and sent them to Yassıada for confinement under military guard. The junta engaged advisors drawn from retired officers with links to the Ottoman General Staff tradition and sought legitimacy via appeals to figures such as İsmet İnönü and jurists from Ankara University and Istanbul University.

Political and Legal Changes

The National Unity Committee appointed Cemal Gürsel as head of state and set up a provisional executive that annulled laws passed by the Democrat Party majority. A constituent assembly was convened, involving delegations from the CHP, the Constituent Assembly (Turkey, 1961), and members of civil society including Türk-İş leadership and representatives from the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges. This process produced the Constitution of 1961, which created institutions such as the Constitutional Court and expanded checks modeled in part on examples from the United States Constitution, French Fifth Republic debates, and postwar legal scholarship from Heidelberg University and Cambridge University. The junta also restructured relationships with NATO and the Central Intelligence Agency through diplomatic missions involving envoys to Washington, D.C. and liaison officers in Brussels.

Trials and Aftermath

Military tribunals convened on Yassıada tried senior Democrat Party officials for crimes including abuse of power and constitutional violations. Prominent defendants Adnan Menderes, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, and Hasan Polatkan were convicted; appeals to domestic jurists and pleas for clemency reached figures like İsmet İnönü and foreign leaders including John F. Kennedy and Harold Macmillan. Death sentences for Adnan Menderes, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, and Hasan Polatkan were carried out, creating martyrs invoked by later parties such as the Justice Party and politicians including Süleyman Demirel. Many lower-ranking Democrat Party members faced imprisonment, asset seizures, and political bans enforced through mechanisms influenced by legal thought from Paris and Rome constitutionalists.

Domestic and International Reactions

Domestically, reactions varied among supporters of the CHP, trade unionists in Türk-İş, student groups from Boğaziçi University and Istanbul University, and conservative networks tied to provincial notables in Konya and Ankara Province. Mass demonstrations in provinces and press coverage in outlets such as Cumhuriyet and Yeni Sabah reflected polarized opinion. Internationally, governments in United States, United Kingdom, France, and West Germany weighed responses balancing strategic ties within NATO against democratic norms; embassies in Ankara and Istanbul engaged with junta officials, while commentators from The New York Times, The Times (London), and academic journals at Harvard University and Columbia University debated legitimacy and precedents set by coups in Greece, Pakistan, and Argentina.

Legacy and Historical Assessment

The 1960 intervention profoundly influenced Turkish politics: it accelerated the rise of parties such as the Justice Party and figures like Süleyman Demirel, reconfigured civil-military relations involving successive chiefs of the Turkish General Staff, and informed constitutional reforms culminating in the Constitution of 1982 response to later crises like the Coup d'état (1971) in Turkey) and Coup d'état (1980) in Turkey)]. Historians from institutions including Boğaziçi University, Middle East Technical University, and Istanbul University debate interpretations advanced by scholars at Oxford University, Princeton University, and SOAS University of London regarding whether the coup safeguarded secularism as championed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and İsmet İnönü or damaged democratic trajectories. Memory politics around Yassıada trials, commemorations by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), and museum projects in Istanbul reflect ongoing contention, with legal scholars citing the episode in analyses found at the European Court of Human Rights and comparative studies of military intervention in politics.

Category:1960 in Turkey Category:Military coups in Turkey Category:Adnan Menderes