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Sadi Koçaş

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Sadi Koçaş
Birth nameMehmet Sadi
Born1919 (1919)
Karaman, Ottoman Empire
Died12 January 1998 (aged 78–79)
Istanbul, Turkey
Buried
Zincirlikuyu cemetery, Istanbul
Allegiance Turkey
Service / branch Turkish Land Forces
RankColonel
Alma materTurkish Military Academy
Children2
Other workDeputy Prime Minister (1971)

Sadi Koçaş (1919–1998) was a Turkish military officer and politician. He was among the military figures who planned a military coup against the rule of the Democrat Party on 27 May 1960. Retired from the army in 1961 he became a member of the Republican People's Party. He briefly served as the deputy prime minister in the cabinet led by Nihat Erim immediately after another military coup in 1971.

Early life and education

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He was born in Karaman, Ottoman Empire, in 1919.[1] His family later settled in Istanbul.[2] He graduated from the Turkish Military Academy as an artillery officer in 1940.[1] He continued his education and became a staff officer in 1950.[1] Then he was educated at the School of Land/Air Warfare in the United Kingdom between 1952 and 1953.[3]

Career and activities

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Following his graduation Koçaş worked in the Turkish Army and in the Ministry of Defense.[1] He was a military attaché in Bucharest, Socialist Republic of Romania, between 1954 and 1956.[3] He was first involved in the secret activities in November 1954 to carry out a military coup against the government led by Prime Minister Adnan Menderes.[4] During this period Koçaş was a major.[4] In 1957 he formed another secret group of the military officers in Ankara against the government.[5] In February 1959 he managed to get support from Cemal Gürsel, commander of land forces, to implement the planned coup.[5] Shortly after these activities Koçaş was sent to London as a military attaché which he held until 1961.[3] He retired from the army with the rank of colonel in 1961.[3]

Cemal Gürsel, leader of the 1960 military coup and President of Turkey, appointed Koçaş as a senator in 1962.[6] He served at the Senate until his resignation in 1969.[1] Then he joined the Republican People's Party and was elected as a deputy from Konya.[3] On 26 March 1971 he was appointed deputy prime minister to the cabinet led by Prime Minister Nihat Erim which had been formed shortly after the Turkish military memorandum on 12 March.[3][7] Koçaş's ministerial portfolio included political and administrative affairs.[7][8] Koçaş and eleven other cabinet members resigned from their posts on 3 December 1971.[3] Following this incident he retired from politics.[1]

Personal life and death

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Koçaş was married and had two daughters.[1] He died in Istanbul on 12 January 1998 and was buried in the Zincirlikuyu cemetery next day.[9]

Work

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Koçaş is the author of several non-fiction books.[1] Two of his books were his memoirs which were published in 1977 and 1978.[10] In these books Koçaş reports the existence of an extremely secret service within the state apparatus which was allegedly led by Fuat Doğu, the undersecretary of Turkish National Intelligence Agency.[10] This claim was also shared by Prime Minister Nihat Erim, and they managed to remove Fuat Doğu from office.[10]

Koçaş also published a book on the history of Armenians and the relations between Armenians and Turks in 1990.[11]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "M. Sadi Koçaş" (in Turkish). Biyografya. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  2. ^ Doğan Gürpınar (2016). "The manufacturing of denial: the making of the Turkish 'official thesis' on the Armenian Genocide between 1974 and 1990". Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. 18 (3): 220. doi:10.1080/19448953.2016.1176397. S2CID 148518678.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Sadi Koçaş öldü". Milliyet (in Turkish). 13 January 1998. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  4. ^ a b Ömer Eryılmaz (March 2014). Turkey in the Triangle of the 1950-1960 Era, the 1960 Military Coup, and the 1961 Constitution (MA thesis). Naval Postgraduate School. p. 53.
  5. ^ a b William Hale (2011). "The Turkish Republic and its Army, 1923–1960". Turkish Studies. 12 (2): 198. doi:10.1080/14683849.2011.572628. S2CID 145425936.
  6. ^ Berk Esen (2021). "Praetorian Army in Action: A Critical Assessment of Civil–Military Relations in Turkey". Armed Forces & Society. 47 (1): 218. doi:10.1177/0095327X20931548. S2CID 225664519.
  7. ^ a b "Chronology February 16, 1971-May 15, 1971". The Middle East Journal. 25 (3): 386. Summer 1971. JSTOR 4324780.
  8. ^ Barış Adıbelli (2022). "The Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the Republic of Turkey and the People's Republic of China (1960-1971)". BRIQ. 3 (1): 67.
  9. ^ "Sadi Koçaş toprağa verildi". Hürriyet (in Turkish). 13 January 1998. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  10. ^ a b c İlker Aytürk (2017). "The Flagship Institution of Cold War Turcology". European Journal of Turkish Studies (24). doi:10.4000/ejts.5517.
  11. ^ M. Sadi Koçaş (1990). Tarihte Ermeniler ve Türk-Ermeni ilişkileri (in Turkish). Istanbul: Kastaş Yayınları. ISBN 978-975-7639-32-9.
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