Background
Cemal Gürsel was born on October 13, 1895 in Erzurum, Turkey. He was the son of an Ottoman Army officer, Abidin Bey, and the grandson of Ibrahim (1820-1895) and the great-grandson of Haci Ahmad (1790-1860).
1960
Head of State Gürsel and NATO Commander Gen. Norstad, USAF, 29 October 1960
Gürsel Hosting HM Queen Elizabeth II.
Cemal Gürsel was born on October 13, 1895 in Erzurum, Turkey. He was the son of an Ottoman Army officer, Abidin Bey, and the grandson of Ibrahim (1820-1895) and the great-grandson of Haci Ahmad (1790-1860).
After the elementary school in Ordu and the military middle school in Erzincan, Cemal Gürsel graduated from the Kuleli military high school in Istanbul. He was a popular figure and was therefore nicknamed "Cemal Ağa" (big brother Cemal) since his childhood school years and onwards all his life. He attended the Turkish Military College and graduated in 1929 as a staff officer.
Cemal Gürsel served in the Army for 45 years. During World War I, he participated in the Battle of Çanakkale in Dardanelles, Gallipoli as a lieutenant with the First Battery of the 12th Artillery Regiment in 1915 and received the War Medal. He later fought at the Palestine and Syria fronts in 1917 and became a prisoner of war by the British while suffering malaria during his command of the 5th Battery of the 41st Regiment on 19 September 1918. Cemal Gürsel was kept as a prisoner of war in Egypt until 6 October 1920.
After his release, Cemal Gürsel returned to Anatolia to re-join Mustafa Kemal subsequent to Erzurum Congress and took part in all the western front campaigns in the Turkish War of Independence between 1920-1923.
Cemal Gürsel was promoted colonel in 1940. He was made a brigadier general in 1946 and made commander of the 65th Division. He was later the commander of the 12th Division, the 18th Corps commander, and commander of the 2nd Interior Tasks District. Made Lieutenant general in 1953, was general in 1957, being appointed Commander of 3rd Army. Service included chief of intelligence, and he was appointed as the Commander of Land Forces in 1958 when he was commanding an army. A patriotic memorandum he sent on 3 May 1960 to the Minister of Defense in an effort to establish checks and balances on ongoing affairs, reflecting his personal views in continuation of the chat they had the night before, expressing his support to the prime minister Adnan Menderes and belief that the Prime Minister should replace the President with immediate effect to bolster a much needed national unity, resulted in his suspension from his post, forcing early retirement instead of becoming the next Chief of the Turkish General Staff. He went to İzmir where he became the president of the Anti-Communism Association of Turkey.
A coup d'état organised and conducted by army officers at the rank of colonels and below took place without the participation or leadership of Cemal Gürsel on 27 May 1960 after continuing civilian and academia unrests throughout the country. Because of his immense popularity among the public and military ranks, Gürsel was subsequently chosen by the revolutionaries overnight and brought into the chairmanship of the military coup and became, as of 2015, the only leader in the world put into power by a military takeover who had previously had no role in its planning or execution. The day after the coup, four-star general Cemal Gürsel was declared the commander in chief, Head of state, Prime minister and Minister of Defense of the 24th government on 30 May 1960.
Cemal Gürsel freed 200 students and nine newsmen, and licensed 14 banned newspapers to start publishing again. He fetched ten law professors, a law postgraduate student as their assistant, from Istanbul and Ankara Universities to help draft a new constitution on 27 May, right after he arrived in Ankara.
He appointed General Ragıp Gümüşpala, the commander of the Third Army, as the new Chief of the General Staff who, upon his retirement in two months, was succeeded by General Cevdet Sunay, and Gümüşpala was further directed by Gürsel to form the new Justice Party to bring together the former members of the Democratic Party.
He took an active role in extensive modernization of Turkish Armed Forces and the staunch defense of the free world and Europe during the cold war, in particular during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cemal Gürsel hosted the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Ankara in early 1961 and the visit of the vice president Lyndon Johnson in 1962.
The constitution, which brought for the first time a full text of civil and political rights under constitutional protection along with an improved system of checks and balances in Turkish history, was approved by a referendum held on 10 October 1961. With the establishment of the first Constitutional Court that created a new paradigm shift by scrutinizing the parliamentary rulings as the "checks" organ in 1961 and the addition of a Senate to the parliament, the Turkish Grand National Assembly was re-opened after the general elections, nominated and voted him as the fourth president of Turkey. The President of the Republic of Turkey Cemal Gürsel assigned the mandate to form and serve as the Prime Minister of the new government to İsmet İnönü in November 1961, June 1962 and December 1963, to Senator Suat Hayri Ürgüplü on February 1965 and, following the general elections, to Suleyman Demirel of Justice Party in October 1965.
Because of a paralysis that started in early 1961 and progressed quickly in 1966, on 2 February Cemal Gürsel was flown to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. on the private airplane "BlueBird" sent by US President Lyndon B. Johnson. One week later, he fell into a coma there after suffering a series of new paralytic strokes. The government decided he return to Turkey on 24 March. President Johnson went by helicopter from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., to pay his respects to President Cemal Gürsel on his departure to home. In addition to issuing the following statement "Our distinguished friend, President Cemal Gursel of Turkey, came to the United States on 2 February for medical treatment. There was hope that new therapeutic procedures only recently developed in this country would be useful in treating his illness of several years. We were initially encouraged by his progress at Walter Reed Hospital, only to be shocked by the news on 8 February that his health had suffered a grave new blow. Our best talent, coupled with the skill of the eminent Turkish doctors who accompanied the President, was exerted to the utmost in the hope that the President might return to his home in fully restored health. We are saddened that this hope was not to be realized. We have been deeply honored to have President Gürsel come to our country to seek medical treatment. As he returns to his homeland, our prayers go with him". With a report of a medical committee by Gülhane Military Hospital in Ankara, the parliament ruled on 28 March 1966 that his presidency be terminated due to ill health in accordance with the constitution.
Cemal Gürsel died of apoplexy at 6:45 pm on 14 September 1966 in Ankara. He left behind no directives or last will. He was laid to rest at the "Freedom Martyrs Memorial" section in the yard of the mausoleum of Atatürk. His body was transferred on 27 August 1988 to a permanent burial place in the newly built Turkish State Cemetery.
Quotations:
"I took over the administration of the state to stop the tragic course of events."
"The network was ready. I personally did not want the army to intervene and had been stopping the attempts (of takeover) of my younger friends. Things reached to such a state that despite my belief that the army should not interfere I let them free in their duties. Now my only goal is to reinstate an administration built on the principles of justice and ethics."
"Those who follow Atatürk will not be left behind."
Cemal Gürsel, as an easy-going and fatherly figure with a fine sense of humor, was well liked both nationally and in NATO circles, and had earned the respect and confidence of both the nation and the armed forces with his professional knowledge and demeanor.
Quotes from others about the person
Professor Bernard Lewis: "General Gursel may be described as the father of the second Turkish Republic similar to Atatürk being the father of modern Turkey. At a time of deep division, Gursel earned and maintained the respect of the Turkish Nation that regarded him as the symbol of national unity. When he passed away, he had the identity of the trusted father of the nation."
Cemal Gürsel was married, in 1927, to Melahat, the daughter of the chief engineer on the Ottoman cruiser Hamidiye. From this marriage, a son Özdemir was born. The couple adopted a daughter Türkan.