A COUP IN TURKEY - JEREMY SEAL
A tale of Democracy. Despotism and Vengeance in a Divided Land.
It is 1959. In Surrey near Gatwick airport a Turkish aeroplane crashes into a wood. As its engine heats up, the dead and seriously wounded lie around the wreck, three men walk out unscathed and into the arms of a local farmer Tony Bailey and his wife Margaret who have rushed their Land Rover though the fog to the site. One of the men is Adnan Menderes the Prime Minister of Turkey, Leader of its ruling Democrat Party.
Hot off the Press, this gripping account of politics in Turkey begins with the miracle survival of Turkey’s modern, stylish young leader from the crash that killed 26 of the plane’s 30 passengers. He had already re-modeled the crumbling city of Istanbul, expanded the capital Ankara and led his country’s devoutly religious population, earlier forced to Westernize, and laiisize, towards a newly- minted Muslim destiny in defiance of the fierce reforms of the ultra modernizing ‘Ataturk’. Yet the very next year this celebrated Man of the People would be on trial for his life, even as world leaders headed by President John F. Kennedy pleaded for clemency.
In a story balanced between decades – the 1950s heyday of Adnan Menderes and today’s Turkey now ruled ruthlessly by the present Prime Minister Recep Erdogån, he draws out the parallels between then and now. And for anyone interested in Turkey’s fate this book is a must-read.
Adnan Menderes
Author Jeremy Seal is a heartfelt devotee of the country. He adores its wonderful beaches strewn with ruins of ancient civilizations, its amazing architecture, its history often profitably placed between the wheels of two great Empires East and West, but most of all its warm and friendly people who welcomed him when he was a young green teacher newly arrived in Ankara.
Jeremy Seal puts himself at the centre of this gripping story of a keen modern leader beloved of the populace who flourished for a decade in the newly emerging Turkey of the Fifties. As the story creeps on to its ghastly conclusion, Seal appears as a detective in today’s Turkey as he seeks out the legacy of the once wildly popular Adnan Bey (Bey translates as Mr.). He explores the intriguing city of Istanbul hot on the heels of the fallen leader, and investigates the sudden shock of the present Prime Minister’s seemingly sudden switch to an authoritarian rule. Where only as recently as 2016 the Turkey was a liberal flourishing place with ambitions to join the EU, a cosmopolitan population who had left the rules against alcohol consumption and Islamic dress behind them. Or thought they had. Seal describes the new regime: he catalogues the succession of civil rights clampdowns that followed the inept Coup of 1915, the journalists and academics thrown into prison, the savage attacks on the once friendly Kurds, the limitation of freedom of expression. Jeremy Seal recalls the last time Adnan Menderes, Adnan Bey, as he was known throughout the land, spoke in public, his skillful oratory claiming the right to rule
‘ I am Prime Minister by the National will. Nothing other than elections can remove us from power - our way is that of free elections, the fostering of liberty and democracy, the affairs of state can only be steered by elections’
His next speech was in defence of his life at his own show trial.
The gallows had already been constructed in the next room
The parallels with the present-day cannot be avoided. Suddenly a democratic and largely peaceful country has turned, post coup, into a heavily policed State. My last visit to Istanbul, was just on the cusp of this metamorphosis. On the stylish main street I saw a brave group of protesters nervous trembling holding up images people recently disappeared by the state. We gazed at them sympathetically hoping to somehow convey support . But as we turned the corner into a side alley, out of sight of the main Street, we were horrified to confront a phalanx of heavily armed military police assembled in lines of two abreast, sinister in their Black outfits and white helmets armed with long batons. We did not wait for the inevitable sickening clas but went home shaking with fear.
The terrifying threat of violence was there at the centre of this civilized and beautiful City, just as it has been decades before. Jeremy Seal rejoices in the glories of Turkey and mourns the tragic descent into authoritarianism with its grisly parallels in the past.
A must read for anyone who wants a front row seat on the times – and history – of a fascinating courlty NATO ally, sophisticated culture but overwhelmed by the iron rule of a one time fellow democrat.
Published by Vintage Books
£16.99
