22 Facts About Adnan Menderes

1.

Adnan Menderes was a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister of Turkey between 1950 and 1960.

2.

Adnan Menderes was one of the founders of the Democrat Party in 1946, the fourth legal opposition party of Turkey.

3.

Adnan Menderes was tried and hanged under the military junta after the 1960 coup d'etat, along with two other cabinet members, Fatin Rustu Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan.

4.

Adnan Menderes was the last Turkish political leader to be executed after a military coup and is one of the four political leaders of the Turkish Republic to have had a mausoleum built in his honour.

5.

Adnan Menderes fought against the invading Greek army during the Turkish War of Independence and was awarded a medal of honour.

6.

Adnan Menderes graduated from the Law School of Ankara University.

7.

On 7 January 1946, the four formed the Democratic Party and in the 1946 elections Adnan Menderes was elected deputy of the Democratic Party representing Kutahya.

8.

Adnan Menderes later won two more free elections, one in 1954 and the other in 1957.

9.

Adnan Menderes supported an eventual Military alliance with the Western Bloc and during his tenure, Turkey was admitted to the NATO in 1952.

10.

In 1955, the Adnan Menderes government is believed to have orchestrated the Istanbul pogrom, which targeted the city's substantial Greek ethnic minority.

11.

The day before the Tripartite London Conference began, Adnan Menderes claimed that Greek Cypriots were planning a massacre of Turkish Cypriots.

12.

Adnan Menderes, sitting in the back part of the plane, survived the accident almost uninjured and was hospitalized at the London Clinic 90 minutes after receiving first aid from Margaret Bailey, a local resident who rushed to the crash site.

13.

Adnan Menderes was on his way to sign the London Agreements on the Cyprus issue with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and Greek Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis, which gave the three sides the right to intervene in Cyprus in case peace is broken by any of the parties.

14.

Adnan Menderes signed the London Agreement on 19 February 1959 in the hospital.

15.

Adnan Menderes returned home on 26 February 1959 and was welcomed by even his arch-rival Ismet Inonu and a large crowd.

16.

Adnan Menderes became quite famous for selling or distributing most of the estate he had inherited to small shareholders.

17.

Adnan Menderes re-opened thousands of mosques across the country which had been closed down, and as such, he was blamed by his political opponents for using religion as a tool for political gain.

18.

Adnan Menderes had a more liberal economic policy than earlier prime ministers, and allowed more private enterprise.

19.

Adnan Menderes was most intolerant towards criticism, so he instituted press censorship and had journalists arrested, as well as attempting to oppress the opposing political parties and take institutions such as universities under his control.

20.

Adnan Menderes who was well liked by the people in general and had the support of the Army Chief of Staff General Cemal Gursel who, in a personal patriotic memorandum, had advocated that Adnan Menderes should become the president of the republic to secure the national unity, became increasingly unpopular among the intellectuals, university students and a group of radical young officers in the military, who feared that Kemalist ideology was in danger.

21.

Adnan Menderes delayed his execution with a suicide attempt by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.

22.

In March 2023, a monument to Adnan Menderes was unveiled at the Akhmet Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University in Turkestan.