Hasan Polatkan

Yassıada, a Marmara island notorious for its jails and trials from the 1960 military coup, has hosted more than 20,000 visitors since it was inaugurated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in May 2020.

Adnan Menderes, Turkey's first democratically elected prime minister, is being commemorated 60 years after his execution following a coup in 1960, an event marking a dark era in Turkish history.

An official ceremony was held in Istanbul on Sept. 17 for Adnan Menderes and two ministers of the time, Hasan Polatkan and Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, who were executed on Sept. 16 and 17, 1961.

Turkey could head to yet another referendum to decide on whether to restore capital punishment if parliament disapproves of the change, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Feb. 24.

It was the mother of republican Turkey?s many bad habits. It was 55 years ago this week when some officers staged a coup against the elected, ever-strong Democrat Party (DP) government of the country, overthrowing an obsessively majoritarian mentality, but at the same time setting precedence for a ?tradition of military interventions? and laying down the foundations of a military tutelage.

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is systematically trying to undermine the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to prevent it from crossing the 10 percent threshold in the June 7 election, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu has said. 

Should the Turkish president have any fear that his future might be similar to that of Egypt's ousted president, Mohamed Morsi? Irrespective of whether there were sufficient reasons or not to merit him having such fears, thank God this country not only abolished the death penalty but also closed that dark chapter of military coups - yes, thanks to a great extent to the Justice and Development P

A construction project on the uninhabited Yass?ada, a small but infamous island located off the coast of Istanbul?s Asian side in the Marmara Sea, was officially started on May 14 in a ceremony with the participation of the prime minister.