Newly disclosed diaries shine light on May 27 coup

[TheCommander]

The disclosure of diaries and handwritten notes belonging to former Chief of General Staff Gen. Rüştü Erdelhun, who was arrested after the May 27, 1960, coup d’état and later tried by a military junta and sentenced to death, has shed light for the first time on the general’s sufferings under the perpetrators of the coup.

The discovery of the diaries and notes comes just before the 52nd anniversary of the first military coup in Turkey’s history, staged by junta cells nested in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). The fresh revelations have added another layer to the pain and shame surrounding memories of the coup.

The Zaman daily, a sister paper of Sunday’s Zaman, started investigating the details behind the arrest of Gen. Erdelhun, which have until now remained largely secret, about three months ago. We wondered about his thoughts and feelings upon being detained by a group of “young officers” he had commanded for long years, and what his days were like in the notorious Yassıada Prison, located on a small island in the Sea of Marmara. While many have told stories about the deplorable circumstances of the Yassıada trial and the humiliation that Erdelhun and his friends were subjected to, their actual experiences remain a matter of great curiosity to us.

We managed to trace official documents recording Erdelhun’s fate following his detention after the May 27 coup, but these documents yielded little of particular interest; then, just a few weeks ago, we received a phone call from Turgut Sayarer, the nephew of Erdelhun’s wife, Vasfiye, offering to provide us with a suitcase full of diaries and other documents -- all in Erdelhun’s hand -- depicting the coup and its aftermath.

We couldn’t have been happier. Handing over the red wooden suitcase, Sayarer said, “I am entrusting the 50-year-old memory to you.”

Erdelhun joined the Turkish army in 1921. He received a medal for his service in the War of Independence. When a group of young and low-ranking officers staged a coup on May 27, 1960, he was the chief of General Staff. Erdelhun was initially forced to resign and consequently stripped of his rank, a first in the history of Turkey. He was later arrested by coup leaders on grounds of supporting the overthrown Democrat Party (DP) against the military, becoming the first chief of General Staff to be arrested and jailed in Turkey. Erdelhun stood trial at Yassıada as a private and was sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment, and he was subsequently pardoned by then-head of state Cemal Gürsel after serving approximately one year in jail.

“It was 4.30 a.m. Gen. Burhanettin Üleş and a War Academy student were at my door. They started to break my door using the **** ends of their rifles because I was late opening the door as I was talking on the phone at the time. [When they broke the door] I was holding my hat in my hand and getting ready to go outside. I was told that we would go to the Turkish Military Academy. I said OK. I saw a tank and jeeps equipped with machine guns in front of the door. When I stepped outside a lieutenant colonel shouted at me ‘Sold man!’ and turned his semi-automatic gun on me,” recalls Erdelhun in one of the diaries, yellowed from being kept in the suitcase for so many years. Inside we also found photographs dating from the aftermath of the May 27 coup. Erdelhun records in one of the documents that he carried the suitcase with him everywhere to continue writing his story; he was hoping to publish a book some time in the future. His reasons for never doing so remain a mystery.

On May 27, 1960, the powerful military overthrew the government of then-Prime Minister Adnan Menderes. Menderes, his fellow DP members and a number of high-ranking officers of the TSK were tried in 14 separate cases in Yassıada by junta-sponsored prosecutors and judges. Among the sentences handed down were 15 death penalties, 12 life sentences and hundreds of long-term imprisonments. Three executions by hanging were carried out: Menderes, Foreign Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan.

Erdelhun’s diaries and notes bear witness to the years of the coup and paint a picture of the last days of Turkey’s martyrs to democracy. The general’s memories are a record of traumatic events that have seeped into the nation’s psyche. In his diaries Erdelhun notes that he began writing down his memories of the coup period only in 1967 after receiving a letter from Celal Bayar, serving president at the time of the May 27 coup. Bayar was among the 15 sentenced to death, but his execution was not carried out due to his advanced age. In the letter Bayar asked Erdelhun to write his story so that coming generations would one day learn the truth about events long past. The general included in his memoirs his analysis of the coup’s impact on the future of Turkey.

What surprised Erdelhun most in the events surrounding May 27 was a proposal from the military junta for him to become the “leader of the coup,” even as he was detained at the War Academy. “A number of [military] officers came to me toward noon on May 27 and told me they were expecting the coup to be led by me. They said I did badly by myself and that the coup was the result of my imprudent support to the [DP] government. One of my friends from the War Academy, who was a lieutenant colonel at the time, came to visit me along with around 20 young officers and told me to make an address to the nation on the radio and declare my decision to join the coup stagers and become the leader of the coup,” the general records in the diaries. “In response I thanked him for the interest he showed in me and reminded him that I had said I would never approve of and support a coup d’état during one of my earlier addresses at the General Staff. I said I was kept under detention for an unknown accusation for several hours, and I would never eat my words about coups, even if it would mean losing my life.”

1960 marks a turning point in Turkey’s political history as the first time the military moved to take control of the country due to its dissatisfaction with the political landscape. No one has yet been tried in connection with their role in the May 27 coup, but there is an expectation mounting in society that involved parties will stand trial -- albeit symbolically, as none of the coup stagers are alive today.

According to the diaries, Erdelhun later learned that the request for him to join and lead the coup was driven by threats from Konya 3rd Army Commander Gen. Ragıp Gümüşpala that he would take charge of the coup if they failed to find a leader for themselves. “If you do not have a high-ranking leader [to lead to coup] then I will order my army to walk to Ankara,” Gümüşpala reportedly told coup stagers. Gümüşpala’s maneuver would have signaled the failure of the coup for the military junta, as the general would have taken control of the coup and rearranged the state as he wished. In an effort to counter Gümüşpala’s threats the junta selected then-Land Forces Commander Gen. as its leader. Gürsel was later elected president.

The first politician to be arrested after the May 27 coup was President Bayar, residing at Çankaya palace. Bayar, who had learned of the coup by telephone, had dressed and was waiting in the living room to be taken into custody. Arriving at the palace, a senior officer charged to arrest Bayar demanded his resignation, but Bayar refused, saying, “I was brought here by the will of the people, and that’s how I will go.” As Bayar spoke he first pointed his gun at the officer and then turned it on himself, but the soldiers intervened and Bayar surrendered. He was dragged from Çankaya palace and taken directly to the military War Academy premises.

Menderes was in Eskişehir on an official visit when he learned the news. He set out immediately for Kütahya with his entourage, arriving at the governor’s office with the intention of resisting arrest, but surrendered when he realized the building was surrounded. He joined Bayar and others in detention at the War Academy. Within days all of those under arrest had been transferred to Yassıada.

Newly disclosed diaries shine light on May 27 coup