KOCAELI, Turkey
The leader of Turkey’s 1980 coup that saw hundreds killed should not receive a state funeral, a Turkish human rights group said on Sunday.
Ali Akbas, head of the Association of Human Rights Defenders, told Anadolu Agency that granting an official ceremony to Kenan Evren, who died on Saturday, would be an insult to the victims of the junta and legitimize the way he grabbed power.
As Turkey’s seventh president, Evren is entitled to a state funeral.
“A state ceremony would be disrespectful to the people who lost their lives during the junta,” Akbas said.
Calling for a boycott of any ceremony, he added: “Attending his funeral would be the same as accepting the junta and its human rights violations.
“A state ceremony for Evren – who even said during his trial that ‘If it happened today I would do it again,’ taking no notice of people’s free will and praising the coup – would legitimize his behavior in seizing power.”
Evren died in hospital in capital Ankara, aged 97. He was convicted last year of crimes against the state alongside fellow coup leader Tahsin Sahinkaya and sentenced to life imprisonment.
During the coup, Evren, then chief of the general staff, seized power amid widespread street violence between left- and right-wing activists.
A brutal crackdown on political opponents saw more than 650,000 people detained and at least 50 hanged. Nearly 300 died under torture or through neglect in prison.
Evren was elected president in 1982, a post he held for seven years.
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