Kenan Evren, Ex President of Turkey on Saturday, May 9, 2015, died at a hospital in Ankara, the country’s capiital at the age of 97 years old.
Prior to death, Kenan had been ill since 2012 and was unable to be present in court on the day of his conviction. The ex-leader came to power by the September 12, 1980 coup which overthrew the incumbent government and went on to serve as president until 1989.
He was convicted in his nineties and was handed a life sentence for the coup in 2014 for the 600,000 people who were detained and the 50 more who were hanged in the coup. He banned all political parties while also heavily targeting left-wing activists. While alive, he allegedly never expressed regret for his role in the most brutal military coup in modern Turkish history.
The people across the political world loathed the coup after the initial welcome it received when they thought it would bring some level of stability. His name is associated with repression in the minds of left wingers, Kurds, nationalists and Islamists.
In 2010, a refrendum was made and strongly supported by Turkish voters to change the constitution so that surviving leaders of the coup could face trial. Although he remained significant in Turkey through out his life, there are many who will not regret his death.
