The island named flat (yassı) and known as mourning (yaslı) island, home to one of the darkest periods in the history of the Republic, resurges as the Democracy and Liberties Island.
592 politicians of the Democrat Party, persecuted by the military coup of May 27, 1960, were held in cells and dungeons in Yassıada for 15 months.
Following a trial by the so-called court on Yassıada, Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Minister of Finance Hasan Polatkan were executed with the decision of junta members.
On the 60th anniversary of the coup of May 27, 1960, Yassıada is opening to public with a special ceremony to be attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following its renovation with many symbolic structures that reflect democracy and national will including a new museum library, conference hall and Democracy Lighthouse.
Yassıada: Witness to the darkest days of democracy
Sixty years have elapsed since the coup of May 27, 1960, which is the first coup of the almost century-old history of the Republic. While the coup of May 27 overshadowed democracy and led to much suffering and oppression, the darkest days of the coup undoubtedly took place on Yassıada.
A part of the island group in the Marmara Sea and neighbouring Istanbul, this rocky island with a width of 185 metres and length of 740 metres was used as a dungeon island that was a regular destination for political exiles in the Byzantine period.
Located only a few kilometres from Istanbul, Yassıada gained its notorious reputation in the history of the Republic following the coup of May 27 for hosting the imprisonment and so-called trials of the top Democrat Party officials and deputies.
Particularly the then-President Celal Bayar and Prime Minister Adnan Menderes as well as the ministers of the period and DP deputies were held in prisons inherited from the Byzantine period, isolated for months and not even allowed to see their families.
The event further increasing the darkness over Yassıada was the execution of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, Minister of Finance Hasan Polatkan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Fatin Rüştü Zorlu with the decisions of so-called court on the island.
Witnessing the darkest days of democracy in the history of the Republic and thus beginning to be known as the "Yaslı Ada (mourning island)" among the people, Yassıada is entering a new period as the Democracy and Liberties Island.
From Yassıada to the Democracy and Liberties Island
With the instructions and initiative of President Erdoğan, the works that started 5 years ago have been completed.
By leaving the old days behind, Yassıada has been turned into a congress center and open air museum that is highly important in terms of social memory.
The Democracy and Liberties Island, of which operation is undertaken by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), will be opened to day visits as well as serving two main functions.
Firstly, it will teach the coup, arrests and prosecutions which are the real shame records in Turkey's democracy and political history to the younger generations of the country, and it will cherish the sacred memories of Menderes, Polatkan and Zorlu.
Secondly, by hosting national and international democracy and human rights meetings, historical experience in this field will be shared at a global level.
40 thousand new plants and trees were planted on the island
The sixty percent (three times the construction area) of the island, used as a training base by the Naval Forces Command for a period and therefore hosting multi-story concrete buildings, has been reserved as the landscape area.
Approximately 40 thousand new trees and plants, convenient for the climate and soil there, were planted, and existing qualified trees and registered buildings on the island were also preserved.
With its museums and congress hall, the Island opens up to the world
The gymnasium, which has been the stage for coup trials, has been converted into the 27 May Museum in order to narrate to the next generations and the world the darkest periods in the history of the island, an aim that has particularly been emphasized by President Erdoğan.
Another structure on the island has been converted into the Democracy and Liberties Museum, where the world’s experience of democracy and the history of human rights is conveyed. The island, along with its library and exhibition areas, has been literally designed as an open-air museum.
On the other hand, with a view to hosting high level international participants on the island, a 123-room congress hotel and a 500-person congress center that can host all kinds of meetings, as well as mosques, monuments, parks and squares have also been built.
Other structures on the island consist of historical Byzantine cistern and dungeons, castle structure, viewing terraces, horizontal elevator for the disabled, historical officer club, wharf administration and crisis management structure, welcoming reception area, helipad, restaurant and staff dormitory and management building.
Democracy Lighthouse lights up
The most remarkable structure of the island is the Democracy Lighthouse with a 24-meter-high stone surface.
The light of the lighthouse can be seen not only from the island, but also from neighboring islands and nearby coasts of Istanbul. As President Erdoğan emphasized, Democracy Lighthouse will illuminate the future with its light as a structure that keeps alive the respect for and belief in democracy.