Kenan Evren: Convicted General behind Turkey's Bloodiest Coup
Ageing general Kenan Evren, the first convicted coup leader in Turkey's modern history, is regarded by many as a savior of the nation but by others as a man with blood on his hands.
The ailing former president, 96, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday along with former air force commander Tahsin Sahinkaya, 89, for their roles in the country's bloodiest putsch, the two surviving members of the junta to be tried.
As head of the armed forces, he seized power in a pre-dawn assault on September 12, 1980 and went on to rule for the next nine years.
Fifty people were sent to the gallows in the aftermath of the coup, while dozens died from torture while in jail and over 600,000 people of all political stripes were arrested.
"This move was made in line with the wishes of the people and the army to eradicate the blow inflicted on democracy," Evren was quoted as saying in the days after the coup.
Evren, along with his second-in-command Sahinkaya, escaped prosecution until Ankara stripped them of their immunity in 2010 in a package of legal amendments adopted exactly 30 years after the coup.
Evren never appeared in the dock because of his ailing health but testified from his hospital bed via video link.
"If it was today, we would do the same thing and stage that coup all over again," he said in a November 2012 hearing. "I have no remorse."
The coup was launched as Turkey was rocked by fierce clashes between left-wing and right-wing activists and the action was at the time hailed by many as a "necessary evil" that saved the country from sinking into a state of anarchy.
After the coup, Evren came under fire from rights groups over callous comments defending the hanging of a 17-year-old convicted of killing a soldier in the unrest, with some saying his hands were "soaked in blood".
"If you do not hang those who deserve it, they will spread like a virus," Evren reportedly said.
Evren became the seventh president of the republic after the junta introduced a new constitution that allowed him to formalize his position as head of state.
He was born in 1917 into a family of Balkan migrants in Manisa, a city near the Aegean coast, in the fading years of the Ottoman Empire.
He graduated from a military high school in Istanbul in 1938, the same year the founder of modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk died.
Evren quickly climbed the ranks of the military and served in South Korea after the Korean War, becoming a general in 1964.
He was appointed armed forces chief of staff in 1978, and a few years later issued his first warning to the government of then prime minister Suleyman Demirel, who had been spared the gallows in Turkey's first coup in 1960.
Evren opted out of public life after his retirement in 1989, moving into his coastal villa in Marmaris and spending much of his time painting by the sea.
In the 1990s, his work was snapped up by Turkish business leaders, with one company paying the equivalent of about $240,000 (176,000 euros) for one oil painting.
"I know the painting was not worth that... they did not even see it," Evren, who is married with three children, said in a 1993 interview.
One of his well-known works is a nude painting of famous Turkish movie actress Hande Ataizi.
However, public and political sentiment turned against him after the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) took power in 2002, clipping the wings of the once-powerful generals.
Source: Agence France Presse
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