No change to name of ‘Evren Barracks

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Kenan Evren, 95, Chief of General Staff during the 1980 military coup. DHA photo

The government has no intention of changing the name of the Kenan Evren Barracks in Istanbul, it has emerged following a written question submitted by a deputy from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). This is despite the fact that several streets named after the leader of the infamous Sept. 12, 1980 junta have been changed.

In his question, MHP Balıkesir deputy Ahmet Duran Bulut asked Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz whether there had been any moves to erase the name of Evren from the barracks.

In his response, Yılmaz said that giving or changing the names

of barracks or any other facilities belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) was a decision for the TSK alone.

In his response, Yılmaz said the name of the “Supply, Finance School and Education Center Commandership Barracks” had been changed to the “Kenan Evren Barracks” on Nov. 15, 1989.

“At present there is no work with regard to changing the name of the Kenan Evren Barracks,” he said, adding that the coup leader’s name had previously been erased from 10 streets in Antalya, Aydın, Elazığ, Gaziantep, Isparta, Manisa, Muğla and Tokat.

Evren, 95, Chief of General Staff during the coup and President until 1989 and Tahsin Şahinkaya, 84, are the only two surviving members of the five-man junta that staged the Sept. 12, 1980 coup. They are both currently being tried as part of a historic trial against the last remaining leaders of the 1980 coup.

A local court in Ankara recently ruled that Evren and Şahinkaya should give their testimony via an audio and visual conference system.

A delegated judge will witness their testimonies at a hospital. The next trial will take place Nov. 20.
The ruling by Ankara’s 12th Heavy Penal Court at the sixth hearing of the Sept. 12, 1980 coup case came in response to a demand by the prosecutor that a medical report indicated that Evren and Şahinkaya were unable to attend court hearings due to their critical health conditions.