Kenan Evren

Ahmet Kenan Evren (born July 17, 1917 – May 9, 2015) was the seventh president of the Turkish Republic, an office he held from November 9, 1982 to November 9, 1989. Evren came to power from the 1980 Turkish military coup.

Kenan Evren (1988)

Quotes

• All my trust in the politicians had been rubbed away.
  • On 17 September 1980, five days after the coup, Evren comments on the political leaders of the standing political parties.
  • From Turkey: Challenges of Continuity and Change by Meliha Benli Altunisik, (p. 43, Routledge, 2005).

• All freedoms provided by democracy are for those who believe in it. Can the rights and freedoms of millions of virtuous people who believe in democracy be safeguarded if those who seek to destroy it abuse rights and freedoms to achieve their goals?
  • An Uneasy Honeymoon, Time. (Sep. 29, 1980)
  • Said Evren in defense of the decision to take power after the 1980 military coup.

• Many axes are being kept under cover, waiting in ambush, ready to pounce, when we resign. Have no worries. We will deliver this homeland to you perfectly clean, as it was in Atatürk's time.
  • Strong Army Medicine, Time. (Dec. 08, 1980)
  • Remark by Evren at a 1980 meeting of the Journalists' Association of Turkey.

• Turkey serves as an anchor of democracy, freedom, and stability in a region in turmoil. Your own Thomas Paine once wrote, 'Those who, expect to reap the blessings of freedom must . . . undergo the fatigue of supporting it.' Let me say that in Turkey, we do not feel fatigued by our support of the Western allies because we know that by supporting the allies, we may all continue to reap the blessings of freedom.
  • US Department of State Bulletin, Sept, 1988
  • From a statement made in a joint press conference with Ronald Regan during the Turkish president's 1988 trip to Washington, D.C.

• I sometimes feel jealous of countries like the U.S. and Great Britain that have two neighbors. … When you have two neighbors, you have two problems. When you have eight neighbors, you have eight problems.
  • The Turkish Times, (News section, April 1, 2002, Year 14 No. 297)
  • Remarks from a statement responding to the announcement of the Kenan Evren Eminent Scholar Chair in Turkish Studies at Florida Atlantic University.