Coup D’etat
On 27 May 1960 the armed forces staged a coup d’etat and sent Celal Bayar along with Adnan Menderes and some other government and party members to a military court on the tiny island Yassiada in the Sea of Marmara on 10 June of the same year. He and 15 other party members were tried for violating the constitution and sentenced to death by a kangaroo court appointed by the junta on 15 September 1961. The ruling military committee approved the death sentence for Menderes, Zorlu and Polatkan, but the punishment for Bayar and other 12 party members was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment. Bayar was sent to jail in Kayseri, but he was released on 7 November 1964 due to ill health.
Bayar was "pardoned" in 1966 . Full political rights were restored to him in 1974, but he declined an invitation to become a life member of the Senate, on the grounds that one can represent the people only if elected . He died on 22 August 1986 in Istanbul at the age of 103. He was father of three children. Their names were Refii (1904–1940), Turgut (1911–1983) and Nilufer (1921– ). Refii Bayar was the General Manager of "Milli Reasurans" a reinsurance company from 1929 to 1939, was the founder of "Halk Evleri" an educational government entity in Istanbul, and was a journalist and published "Halk" newspaper between 1939–1941 with Cemal Kutay. Dr. Nilüfer Gürsoy married Ahmet İhsan Gürsoy (1913–2008), who was Kütahya deputy for Democratic Party between 1946–1960 and was Bursa deputy of Justice Party between 1965–1969 and İstanbul deputy for Democratic Party between 1973–1975 and for again Justice Party between 1975–1980.
In 1954, Bayar was awarded the Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Sonderstufe des Großkreuzes des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland). In 1958, the Freie Universität Berlin (Free University Berlin) awarded him an honorary doctorate. Previously, in 1954, Bayar was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Belgrade. Celal Bayar University, which was established in 1992 in Manisa, is named after him.
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