The association of people who were young adults and students in 1978 started the campaign on last year’s 28th anniversary of the military coup of 12 September 1980. It has demanded that the names of coup leader General Kenan Evren and other coup geenrals disappear from schools.

The association applied to the Izmir Administrative Council and presented a signature campaign to the province council.  

Hundreds of thousands of people oppressed

Radikal newspaper called the approval of the province council “a historic decision”. The newspaper further reported that Gülşen Korkmaz Kahraman, a Republican People’s Party (CHP) member of the council spoke at the meeting yesterday, saying that the coup of 12 September 1980 had meant an end to democracy at the time. She reminded council members that in that period security forces had prepared reports on 1 million 683 thousand people and that 650,000 people had been taken into custody.

Dark stain should be removed

Kahraman argued that naming the schools after such a coup had been “an attempt to immortalise this dark stain in our history.”

There are three schools in Izmir province concerned by this decision, one named the “12 September School” and two named after Kenan Evren.

The councillor suggested that the schools be renamed after Erdal Eren, executed during the military regime, Aydin Erten, a former mayor of a district in Izmir, and the poet Nazim Hikmet.  (BÇ/AG)