Welfare Party

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has commemorated the 27th anniversary of the 1997 military intervention plot, commonly known as the "post-modern coup."

"Our nation has never forgotten and will never forget the coup plotters and those who supported them on Feb. 28, who attacked its unity, solidarity, democracy and will," Erdoğan declared in a statement on X.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan hopes to extend his rule into a third decade in a May 14 election but faces his toughest test yet at the ballot box, with his popularity hit by a cost-of-living crisis driven by runaway inflation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who earlier this year marked 20 years in power - first as prime minister and later as president - is seeking a third consecutive presidential term in elections on May 14.

The 69-year-old started as a reformist who expanded rights and freedoms, allowing his majority-Muslim country to start European Union membership negotiations.

Fourteen retired generals were handed life sentences for their involvement in the forced resignation of the democratically elected government in early 1997, often called "postmodern coup," while seven of them, including former 1st Army Commander Gen. Çetin Doğan and former deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Çevik Bir, were jailed on late Aug. 19.

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The Court of Cassation has upheld the prison sentences given to 14 defendants, including retired General Çevik Bir, the then-chief of General Staff, and retired General Çetin Doğan, the then-chief of General Staff Operations, in the Feb. 28, 1997 trial.

Former Gen. İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, 88, who served between 1994 and 1998 as Turkey's chief of General Staff, died in Istanbul.
He had been undergoing treatment for cancer in a private hospital.

Born in the central province of Çankırı in 1932, Karadayı graduated from military school in 1951.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched his political career in 1994 as a moderate Islamist from the municipality of Istanbul supported by the then small Welfare Party of Necmettin Erbakan.

With the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) set to mark its 16th anniversary on Aug. 14, President and AKP head Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has instructed party officials to organize celebrations in a manner that "will not overshadow the July 2016 coup attempt commemorations."

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited the tombs of three former leaders on April 17, one day after Turkey voted in favor of shifting to an executive presidential system in a constitutional referendum. 

Erdoğan visited the tombs of former president Turgut Özal and former prime ministers Necmettin Erbakan and Adnan Menderes in Istanbul. 

It was at that time when the Welfare Party (RP) was closed and the Virtue Party (FP) had just been formed. I was the Ankara representative of daily Radikal then. A three-person team from the paper interviewed the FP party chair, Recai Kutan.