Erdoğan remembers executed ex-PM on anniversary of 1960 coup

On the anniversary of the 1960 military coup that resulted in the execution of the deposed Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, which is a painful period in Turkey's past, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized the mindset of those who favor coups in a veiled reference to some media outlets and to the successors of the Republican People's Party (CHP) of the period, which was the only opposition, while Menderes was sent to the gallows. "They hanged him not because he was guilty, but in order to intimidate the ruling parties to come," Erdoğan said on Wednesday while addressing a rally of supporters in the western province of Uşak. One result of the post-World War II world system's emergence, which Turkey wanted to be a part of, was the transition from single-party dictatorship to a multiparty system that took place in 1945 and culminated with the electoral success of the Democrat Party (DP) on May 14, 1950, the first free election in Turkish history. Menderes, the person who began to change Turkey's direction in May, was put on trial following the 1960 coup and executed along with two ministers, Hasan Polatkan and Fatin Rüştü Zorlu.Erdoğan also castigated Western media for interfering in Turkey's affairs to propagate a view that is defamatory of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) ahead of the elections and recalled that the West did the same during certain critical periods Turkey went through,such as Feb. 28, 1997 military memorandum, which initiated the process that precipitated the resignation of Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan and the Gezi Park protests of 2013, which began as peaceful protests but resulted in nation-wide violence. "The June 7 [elections] are therefore significant. They will be a response to those who attempt to intimidate the elected government by citing the fate of [Egyptian President] Mohammed Morsi and Menderes," Erdoğan said.