Adnan Menderes

Adnan Menderes was a Turkish politician who served as the Prime Minister of Turkey from 1950 to 1960. He was one of the founders of the Democrat Party (DP) in 1946, the fourth legal opposition party of Turkey. He was the first democratically elected leader of Turkey after the transition from the one-party rule of the Republican People's Party (RPP). He pursued a pro-Western and liberal economic policy, as well as a more tolerant attitude towards the religious and cultural traditions of the Turkish people. He also improved the relations with Muslim countries and supported the Turkish Cypriots in their struggle for self-determination. He faced several challenges during his tenure, such as the Korean War, the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the 1955 Istanbul pogrom, the 1956 Suez Crisis, and the 1958 Lebanon crisis. He also faced growing opposition from the RPP, the military, the press, and the urban elites, who accused him of corruption, authoritarianism, and mismanagement of the economy. In 1960, he was overthrown by a military coup led by a group of young officers, who established a junta and put him on trial for violating the constitution and ordering the Istanbul pogrom. He was sentenced to death and executed by hanging on September 17, 1961, along with two other cabinet members, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan. He was the last Turkish political leader to be executed after a military coup and is also one of the four political leaders of the Turkish Republic (along with Kemal Atatürk, Süleyman Demirel and Turgut Özal) to have had a mausoleum built in his honour. He is widely regarded as a martyr and a symbol of democracy by his supporters, while his critics view him as a demagogue and a dictator.