Ousted PM Adnan Menderes abused in Yassıada cell: report

The deposed Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was abused and mistreated by young officers in Yassıada, where he was forced into exile and tried after the military coup on May 27, 1960, according to reports, submitted to the presidency of a military junta, commonly referred to the National Unity Committee, or N.U.C.

Menderes and his fellow Democrat Party members were put on trial in Yassıada in 1960 in the aftermath of Turkey's first of a series of military interventions that set the scene for the Army having influence over the country's multi-party system.

The reports, unveiled by Turkey's liberal Yeni Şafak, were written by Staff Lieutenant Necip Aka, who was serving as the chief of the military intelligence unit on the Yassıada, during the 11-month trial, which ended in the execution of Menderes and many of his co-defendants.

One of the reports indicated Menderes was beaten in his cell by two officers in favor of the military junta. “…They confessed to punching him a few times as he insulted him when they were questioned over the claims which the previous prime minister Adnan Menderes mentioned in his letter of complaint, submitted to N.U.C.," said the report, dated Oct. 10, 1960.

Menderes was apparently dragged into the emotional whirlpool as a result of being locked in a cell and being exposed to physical abuse, because another report written a week later on Oct. 17, 1960, shed light on a great depression Menderes was suffering behind the iron bars.

“The previous prime minister is continuosly praying and shouting as they will kill me. Doctors have given him antianxiety agents to get him to sleep. Before the hearing, the pill dosage he takes is reduced, and then increased to its usual dose after the hearing. It looks like the pills works," the letter explained.

Fearing that Menderes could have mentioned he was tortured in his cell, the junta forced him not to make any declaration of the incident, according to another report, dated October 23,1960. “…Full attention was paid to cover the incident of the previous prime minister's beating. A promise was received from him that he will not speak of it to anybody," it admitted.

One another letter laid witness to the fact that the torture which Mendered was liabled to in his cell, was not just physical abuse, explaining that the junta did not allow him to read verses from the Holy Quran in his cell. “…All religious books that the previous prime minister was reading in his cell were confiscated. He was not allowed any access to every kind of newspaper and magazine, which may have led him to depression and sluggishness."

Menderes and the two deposed ministers in his cabinet were found guilty of violating the constitution, embezzling money from the state funds and ordering the September events, which targetted primarily Istanbul's Greek minority on September 6-7,1955, and resulted in the death of 57 minority members.

The pro-junta court handed down the death sentenced for 15 leading party members who were arrested with Menderes. Menderes was hanged on Imralı island along with the then Foreign Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and then Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan in 1961.