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Kenan Evren (born 17 July 1917 in Alaşehir, Manisa), is a former Turkish general, the leader of the coup d'etat on 12 September 1980 and the 7th president of Turkey.

Contents 1 Early life 2 The Military Coup 3 Following Presidency 4 See also

After going to elementary school and middle school in Manisa, Balıkesir and İstanbul, he attended military high school in Maltepe, Ankara. In 1938, he graduated from army school and in 1949 from military academy as a staff officer. He participated in the Korean War. In 1958 and 1959 he served in Korea. In 1964 he was made general. Evren served at various posts like as Chief army. He was Counter-Guerrilla's commander, Gladio's Turkish branch of NATO's "stay-behind" secret armies [1]. He became Chief joint staff in 1978.

He led the September 12 1980 military coup in Turkey. Years leading to the coup were characterized as a fierce competition between the rightists and leftists. Hoping to see a communist revolution the left wingers rioted in the streets; on the other hand, the nationalist rightists fought back the left wingers and provoked religious arousement. Universities had taken sides and each became headquarters for either the leftists or rightists. The political leaders Suleyman Demirel and Bülent Ecevit were incapable of having control of the violence. The coup was welcomed by many Turks that believed the coup saved the country from total destruction. With the coup, came the National Security Council (Milli Güvenlik Konseyi) as the ruling body. The council of 1980 was composed of the commanders Kenan Evren, the Chief of Staff and President of the State; moreover, the chief commanders of the armed forces. The parliament was dissolved. According to a widely believed story in Turkey, he and his team of force commanders were named "our boys" in the CIA headquarters after the coup.

After the coup, in 1982, Kenan Evren installed himself as President of Republic of Turkey on November 7 with the 90% approval of the new constitution that was submitted to a public referendum, replacing the older constitution which had "luxurious" liberties for Turkey according to him. He suspended many forms of civil liberties and human rights on the grounds that it was necessary to establish stability. He seemed to have great admiration for the founder of Turkey, Kemal Atatürk, ironically he shut down many institutions founded by Atatürk and is often accused of deforming the country's legal system against Atatürk's principles. During his military regime, many people were executed because of their political beliefs, including a 16 year old boy named Erdal Eren. In a very controversial event, Erdal Eren, 16 years old was executed by raising his age to 18 to make the death penalty applicable. He made his infamous comment on executions: "Asmayalım da besleyelim mi?" (Should we feed them rather than hanging them?). Evren took strong measures to ensure that the division between the political left and right would not be able to turn into violence again with the new constitution by limiting rights and depoliticizing the youth.

After his retirement, he moved to the Turkish Mediterranean resort town of Marmaris and took up painting.

On 2 August 2006, a reported plan for assassinating Evren was thwarted when two men were apprehended and arrested in Muğla [2]. A previous attempt in 1996 could be tracked down when two members of the assassination team spoke on a cellphone eavesdropped by the police, and adhan could be heard during their conversation. Since the timing of the adhan was came 4-5 minutes after İstanbul, a point slightly more to the west by that time margin was sought and the team members were caught in Marmaris self. [3]

After Bülent Ecevit's death he stated his remorse about arresting the political leaders after the coup d'etat of September 12. [4]

• Presentation of Evren on the website of the Presidency of the Turkish Republic
• Operation Gladio

Preceded by Semih Sancar	Chief of the General Staff of Turkey 1978–1983	Succeeded by Nurettin Ersin
Preceded by Fahri Korutürk	President of Turkey 1982–1989	Succeeded by Turgut Özal

	Chiefs of the General Staff of Turkey
	İnönü | Çakmak | Orbay | Omurtak | Gürman | Yamut | Baransel | Tunaboylu | Mengüç | Erdelhun | Gümüşpala | Sunay | Tural | Tağmaç | Gürler | Sancar | Evren | Ersin | Üruğ | Torumtay | Güreş | Karadayı | Kıvrıkoğlu | Özkök | Büyükanıt