Mausoleum of Adnan Menderes

Adnan Menderes Monumental Tomb, located in Topkapı Cemetery on Vatan Avenue in the Topkapı district of Istanbul, is a monumental tomb within which lies the mausoleum of former Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes.

After the 27 May Coup, following the Yassıada Trials, Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan and Foreign Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu were hanged at İmralı Prison and executed. By a law enacted in 1990, the reputations of Adnan Menderes and his colleagues were restored and their remains, located on İmralı Island, were transferred to the current monumental tomb in a state ceremony attended by the then President Turgut Özal on 17 September 1990. In 2011, Menderes' deceased son Aydın Menderes was also buried inside the Monumental Tomb.

Death of Adnan Menderes

Adnan Menderes, who served as Prime Minister of the Democratic Party governments in Turkey during the 1950‑60s, was removed from office by the 27 May Coup and tried together with many Democratic Party members before the Supreme Court. A death sentence was issued at Yassıada and the sentences concerning Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan, who were taken to İmralı Island, were carried out on 16 September 1961, while the sentence concerning Adnan Menderes was executed on 17 September 1961.

Transfer of the Remains

On 16 September 1990, a ceremony was held at the graves of Adnan Menderes, Hasan Polatkan and Fatin Rüştü Zorlu on İmralı Island and the graves were opened. The ceremony was also attended by the then Minister of Justice Mahmut Oltan Sungurlu and Prime Ministry Undersecretary Sabahattin Çakmakoğlu. The remains, placed in coffins wrapped with the Turkish flag, were transferred by a group of soldiers and police in a ceremony to the Trojan Ferry.

On 17 September 1990, the bodies taken from the Troy Ferry at Sarayburnu Pier were brought by cortege from Kennedy Avenue to the Murat Paşa Mosque in Aksaray. After the funeral prayer held there, with the intense participation of the public and an official cortege, they were taken through Vatan Avenue to the Monumental Tomb.

State ceremony

On the 29th anniversary of his death, 17 September 1990, a State Ceremony was held at the newly built Monumental Tomb with a band, and President Turgut Özal, together with the families of Menderes, Polatkan and Zorlu, laid wreaths at the mausoleum.

The state ceremony held at the Monumental Tomb was attended by President Turgut Özal, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly Kaya Erdem, Prime Minister Yıldırım Akbulut, Prime Minister of the TRNC Derviş Eroğlu, Interior Minister Abdülkadir Aksu, Minister of National Education Avni Akyol, Minister of Culture Namık Kemal Zeybek, Minister of Justice Mahmut Oltan Sungurlu, State Ministers Mehmet Keçeciler, Mehmet Yazar, Güneş Taner, İbrahim Özdemir, Recep Ercüment Konukman, Hüsnü Doğan, Mustafa Rüştü Taşar, Vehbi Dinçerler, Kamran İnan, Cemil Çiçek, İsmet Özarslan, Hüsamettin Örüç, Minister of Tourism İlhan Aküzüm, Minister of Industry and Trade Şükrü Yürür, Minister of Labor and Social Security İmren Aykut, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Village Affairs Lütfullah Kayalar, Minister of Health Halil Şıvgın, Minister of National Defense Safa Giray, Minister of Public Works Cengiz Altınkaya, Minister of Finance and Customs Adnan Kahveci, Minister of Transport Cengiz Tuncer, Istanbul Governor Cahit Bayar, and True Path Party Chairman Süleyman Demirel.

Building features

The design of the building belongs to İzzet Yağcı, Müyesser Yağcı and Bayram Yağcı. Its construction was carried out by "BİM Construction Engineering and Architecture Company".

The building with an octagonal plan resembles Ottoman and Seljuk tomb examples. From the ceremony area in front of the building, the tomb area is reached by stairs. The roof covering of the inner part where the graves are located rises in a pyramidal shape, and this rising part is partially open at the top. The structure, which is reinforced concrete, has an exterior cladding of travertine, roof covering material copper, and the cladding of the eight columns that support the structure is marble. On the roof, as in traditional religious buildings, there is an alem. It was registered as a cultural heritage on 26 September 2022.

Restoration work

Within the law published in the Official Gazette on 22.07.2003, the maintenance, repair, preservation, management and similar works of the Monumental Tomb were assigned to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. In 2017, the Metropolitan Municipality carried out the maintenance and renovation of the Monumental Tomb.

The burial of Aydın Menderes

At the request of his son Aydın Menderes, who was also a politician and died on 23 December 2011, his body was buried next to his father's in the Monumental Tomb.