In his biggest public event since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated an ambitious but controversial project that pays homage to his political idol Adnan Menderes, the center-right prime minister who ended in the gallows after modern Turkey’s first military coup in 1960.

The May 27 inauguration of the giant memorial project on Yassiada, a once-picturesque and uninhabited island 16 kilometers (10 miles) off Istanbul, came at the 60th anniversary of the May 27 military coup that ousted the Democrat Party, which rose to power in Turkey’s first free multi-party elections in 1950 and held the reins of the country for a decade. 

Yassiada, rebaptized seven years ago as “Democracy and Liberties Island,” was where the putschists jailed and tried the party brass before executing Menderes and his ministers of economy and foreign affairs at the nearby island of Imrali.

"60 years ago, Turkey experienced one of the darkest days of its history with the May 27 coup," Erdogan said. “It was not only the will of the people that was executed, but the law … Not only Menderes and his aides were tried in Yassiada, but also Turkish history, culture, values and beliefs.”