ISTANBUL: Turkey yesterday renamed a tiny island south of Istanbul which has for decades represented a powerful symbol in a country torn between secularism and Islamic traditions.
On Yassiada, now “Democracy and Freedom Island”, prime minister Adnan Menderes, his foreign minister Fatin Rustu Zorlu and finance minister Hasan Polatkan went on trial before being hanged by the military junta after a 1960 coup.
The name change is part of plans by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted government to change names of places, towns and cities as part of a “democratisation package.”
In April, the government said it was planning to turn Yassiada into a democracy museum as a “lesson” to future generations.
AFP
