The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Monday launched an investigation into the Atatürkist Thought Organization (ADD) over a tweet shared yesterday on the anniversary of a military coup in which it championed the army’s efforts, the Milliyet daily reported.
“The Turkish Armed Forces, half a century ago, exercised its right to resist a political government that had deviated from the constitution and the law. The nation’s support was behind the army,” the ADD account tweeted on Sunday, the anniversary of a military coup on May 27, 1960.
ADD executive board, later on, announced they have not been informed about the tweet beforehand, implying that there would be consequences for those who had tweeted.
The prosecutor accused the ADD of praising a crime and criminal in reference to the coup in 1960, during which Turkey’s second political party, the Democrat Party (DP), was overthrown by a junta and then-Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and two other ministers, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan, were executed by hanging.
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said early in the morning that the ministry would file a legal complaint against the ADD, while Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ accused the ADD of having distanced itself from the thoughts of Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey.
The ADD and other factions of the political spectrum consider the May 27 incidents to have been a revolution against an oppressive government. However, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has used photos of Menderes after he had been hung during election campaigns, saying it was “honoring his martyrdom.”
The military interventions of Feb. 28, 1997 and Sept. 12, 1980 were in recent years prosecuted and punished by a court, but there has been never a prosecution against May 27, 1960 military coup since the actors are long since deceased.
