Adnan Menderes was the oppressed Prime Minister of Turkey who was hanged on this very day in 1961. Adnan’s first offense was that he resorted to legal means to repeal a law in the Assembly banning the call to prayer in Arabic in Turkey, and the decision resulted in a June 17, 1950, 18-year extension of Turkey Adhan was given in Arabic.
His second crime was to build a mosque in front of the shrine of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of secularism in the Muslim world, for which he paid one lakh lira (Turkish currency) out of his own pocket.
Adnan Menderes’ third crime was to lift the ban on the Hajj Baitullah during the Atatرکrk era, and in a quarter of a century, 25 years later, in 1950 alone, 423 Turks performed the Hajj.
Adnan Menderes handcuffed them to a large extent
The cuts that were made at the feet of Islam during the establishment of democracy in Turkey.
In May 1960, the Turkish military overthrew the government, prosecuted Adnan and some members of his cabinet in court, and sentenced some people, including Adnan, to death for baseless violations of the constitution.
The military’s obsession with defending secularism was so strong that it ignored the demands of many world leaders, including US President John F. Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II.
He was hanged in 1961. The other two politicians hanged included Fatan Rashto Zorlo, the foreign minister in Adnan’s cabinet.
But Adnan’s blood did not go in vain. Islamic-minded politicians continued to dominate Turkish politics until Najmuddin Erbakan’s Rafah party came to power in 1995 and was ousted within a few years. The Justice and Development Party came to power and has won three consecutive elections under Erdogan’s leadership and is still in parliament with a simple majority. Movable
