National Unity Committee

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The Committee of National Unity ( Turkish Millî Birlik Komitesi , MBK ) was a 38-member group of officers led by General Cemal Gürsel , who overthrew the Turkish government of Adnan Menderes on May 27, 1960 , disempowered President Celâl Bayar and dissolved the Grand National Assembly .

The President of the MBK became President, Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Army at the same time .

background

On May 19, 1945, the end of the one-party system in Turkey was initiated, whereupon Celâl Bayar and other politicians resigned from the Republican People's Party and in 1946 founded the Democratic Party (DP). This party won the elections on May 14, 1950 by an overwhelming majority. Celâl Bayar became president and Adnan Menderes took over the office of prime minister.

Another decisive factor was the promise to grant Islam more freedom again. In this context, the call to prayer was called in Arabic again instead of in Turkish, as it had been since 1932. This represented a break with the Kemalism practiced until then .

Despite rapid economic growth, social tensions in Turkey now increased more than before. The DP again won the elections in 1954. In 1957 the election result was very close. The DP increasingly began to politically suppress the opposition Republican People's Party.

In 1960, Adnan Menderes proclaimed an enabling law to eliminate the growing resistance. On May 3, 1960, General Cemal Gürsel was relieved of command of the armed forces.

All of these circumstances led some middle and lower ranks of officers to putsch. On May 27, 1960, Colonel Alparslan Türkeş announced on Radio Ankara at 04:36 a.m. that the Turkish armed forces had taken power in the state to prevent civil war. Major General Cemal Madanoğlu exercised the actual order during the coup . General Ragıp Gümüşpala meanwhile announced that he would enter Ankara with his 3rd Army and end the coup if the leader of the coup did not hold a higher rank than himself. Cemal Gürsel, who had been in İzmir until then , was flown to Ankara in a Douglas DC-3 and arrived there at 11:30 a.m. At 4:00 p.m., he gave a radio address as the leader of the group.

The curfew was lifted with this address, which resulted in great cheers and celebrations from the citizens of Ankara and Istanbul. In the rest of the country the mood was rather depressed. During the Menderes period, the unrest was mainly limited to Ankara, Istanbul and partly İzmir. There were many sympathizers of the Menderes government in largely rural areas who viewed the junta with suspicion.

The European Economic Community (EEC) reacted to the coup by announcing that it was " not interested in being an association partner in a Turkey in which the basic democratic order had (temporarily) been abolished ". Only after this basic order had been restored was an association agreement signed between the EEC and Turkey on September 12, 1963, which came into force on December 1, 1964.

Consequences of the coup

See also: Yassıada processes

The DP, which ruled until the coup, was banned, 147 professors and lecturers were dismissed, 235 of the 260 generals were retired and 5,000 officers were expelled from the army.

The "High Court" ( Yüksek Adalet Divani ), whose members were appointed by the MTC, condemned on the island Yassıada 15 politicians - including Adnan Menderes, Celâl Bayar, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan  - to death .

Despite strong international pressure, the junta insisted on carrying out the death sentences. The sentences against Polatkan and Zorlu were carried out on September 16, and that against Menderes on September 17, 1961 on the prison island of İmralı . The remainder of the death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment , and the remainder were amnestied until 1964 .

A total of 433 politicians and officials were sentenced to imprisonment; 133 defendants were acquitted.

New constitution

Main article: Turkish Constitution of 1961

On the day of the coup, constitutional lawyers were convened by the MBK to work out the basic principles of a new constitution. Law No. 1 of June 12, 1960, together with Law No. 157 of December 13, 1960, constituted the constitution of Turkey under the military rule of 1960/61. The MBK was thus set up as an executive and - until the Constituent Assembly was called - as a legislative power.

The constituent assembly consisted of a representative assembly and the MBK, i.e. two chambers.

On March 9, 1961, the draft completed by the Constituent Assembly was discussed in the Assembly of Representatives and later in the MBK and finally adopted on May 27, 1961 by vote in the Constituent Assembly . On July 9, 1961, the new constitution was approved by referendum and came into force on July 20, 1961.

MBK members

The MBK initially consisted of a total of 38 officers. Brigadier General İrfan Baştuğ died on September 12, 1960 as a result of a traffic accident.

On October 13, 1960, 14 officers - the so-called fourteen (tr .: Ondörtler ) - were released from the MBK. These officers, led by Alparslan Türkeş , insisted that power should not be transferred to a civilian government “in order to reform the state and society in a sustainable manner ”. Türkeş wanted to establish a military regime modeled on Gamal Abdel Nasser and also to form an “ideal and cultural unit of Turkey”, which should be entrusted with control of the Bureau for Religious Affairs , the Ministry of Education and the press and radio. This unit should be led by the officers themselves.

The majority of the MBK officers, however, advocated the establishment of a constitutional state and the fastest possible takeover of power by a democratically elected government. After a failed attack on Cemal Gürsel, the MBK was briefly dissolved, the fourteen were released from the MBK and sent into exile for two years (officially as military attaché ).

Thus, the number of members finally decreased to 23.

The members were:

  1. General Cemal Gürsel
  2. General Fahri Özdilek
  3. Major General Cemal Madanoğlu (resigned June 6, 1961)
  4. Brigadier General İrfan Baştuğ († September 12, 1960)
  5. Brigadier General Sıtkı Ulay
  6. Colonel Ekrem Acuner
  7. Colonel (Air Force) Mucip Ataklı
  8. Colonel Osman Köksal
  9. Colonel Fikret Kuytak
  10. Colonel Sami Küçük
  11. Colonel (Air Force) Haydar Tunçkanat
  12. Colonel Muzaffer Yurdakuler
  13. Lieutenant Colonel Refet Aksoyoğlu
  14. Lieutenant Colonel Suphi Karaman
  15. Lieutenant Colonel Sezai Okan
  16. Lieutenant Colonel Ahmet Yıldız
  17. Major (Air Force) Emanullah Çelebi
  18. Major Vehbi Ersü
  19. Major Suphi Gursoytrak
  20. Major Kadri Kaplan
  21. Major Mehmet Özgüneş
  22. Major Selahattin Özgür
  23. Major Şükran Özkaya
  24. Captain Kamil Karavelioğlu

The fourteen :

  1. Colonel Alparslan Türkeş (Exile in New Delhi )
  2. Major Fazıl Akkoyunlu (exile in Kabul )
  3. Lieutenant Colonel Orhan Kabibay (exile in Brussels )
  4. Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kaplan (exile in Lisbon )
  5. Major Orhan Erkanlı (Exile in Mexico City )
  6. Major Muzaffer Karan (exile in Oslo )
  7. Major Münir Köseoğlu (Exile in Stockholm )
  8. Major Şefik Soyuyüce (exile in Copenhagen )
  9. Major Dündar Taşer (exile in Rabat )
  10. Captain Rıfat Baykal (exile in Tel Aviv-Jaffa )
  11. Captain Ahmet Er (exile in Tripolitania )
  12. Captain Numan Esin (exile in Madrid )
  13. Captain Muzaffer Özdağ (exile in Tokyo )
  14. Captain İrfan Solmazer (exile in The Hague )

resolution

After the elections of October 15, 1961 and the meeting of the Grand National Assembly on October 25, 1961, the MBK dissolved in accordance with Article 8 of Law No. 1 of June 12, 1960.

In the elections, the Republican People's Party prevailed with 36.7%, just ahead of the Justice Party with 34.7%, and İsmet İnönü was again prime minister in the coalition government. Cemal Gürsel continued to hold the office of President.

literature

  • The Turkish Constitution of July 9th . In: Yearbook of Public Law of the Present . JCB Mohr (P. Siebeck), 1964, pp. 325ff.
  • Rona Serozan: The role of the military in the development of Turkey . RG Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 978-3-88323-639-1 .
  • Walter F. Weiker: The Turkish Revolution 1960-1961: Aspects Of Military Politics . The Brookings Institution, Washington DC 1963. ( archive.org )

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ According to Art. 17 of Law No. 1 of June 12, 1960.
  2. ^ A b Arnold Hottinger: Islamic World: The Near East: Experiences, Encounters, Analyzes , 2004, ISBN 978-3-506-71800-6 , p. 384 f.
  3. ↑ 27 Mayıs Darbesi Kronolojisi ve Yassıada Duruşmaları  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , bianet, accessed November 17, 2008.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.bianet.org  
  4. ↑ M. Efe Çaman: Turkish Foreign Policy after the End of the East-West Conflict: Foreign Policy Continuity and Reorientation between EU Integration and New Regional Policy . Inaugural dissertation, University of Augsburg 2004, p. 173. ( online )
  5. ↑ The Tribunal on Yassiada . In: Die Zeit , No. 45/1960
  6. ↑ Günter Seufert u. a .: Turkey: politics, history, culture . Verlag CH Beck , 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-54750-8 , p. 103 f.
  7. ^ History of the Press and Information Office in the Prime Minister's Office, accessed on November 17, 2008.
  8. ↑ Law on Repealing and Amending Certain Provisions of Constitutional Law No. 491 of 1924 .
  9. ↑ Law on the formation of the Constituent Assembly as a supplement to Provisional Law No. 1 of June 14, 1960 on the repeal and amendment of certain provisions of the Constitutional Law No. 491 of 1924 .
  10. ↑ More precisely regulated in the second section of Law No. 157 of December 13, 1960.
  11. ↑ According to Art. 1 of Law No. 157 of December 13, 1960.
  12. ↑ a b Derya Bıyıklı: Turkey's foreign policy position in the Near and Middle East, especially after the Cold War until the end of 1999, continuity or change? , Hamburg 2004, p. 55 f. ( PDF; 2.61 MB ).