The most dramatic revealing and little-known story in Turkey's history - which illuminates the
nation'Through the spellbinding career of a single ill-fated leader Jeremy Seal illuminates a
bitterly divided country' Colin Thubron'Read this book if you're interested in Turkey. Read it
if you're interested in power hubris and redemption. Read it' Christopher de Bellaigue author
of The Islamic EnlightenmentIn the spring of 2016 travel writer Jeremy Seal went to Turkey to
investigate perhaps the most dramatic revealing and little-known episode in the country's
history - the 'original' coup of 1960 which deposed the traditionalist Prime Minister Adnan
Menderes. The story of Menderes - to his adoring supporters the country's founding democrat to
his sworn enemies its most infamous traitor - goes to the heart of the feud that continues to
rage between the Western and secular ambitions of a minority elite and the religious and
conservative instincts of the small-town majority. A Coup in Turkey is a thrilling account of
the events leading up to the coup and the trials and executions that followed a story of
political subterfuge and score-settling courtroom drama state execution authoritarian
intolerance and ideological division.Seal travels through President Erdogan's Turkey tracking
down eye-witness accounts from survivors of the Menderes era in Istanbul the historic
metropolis and the new capital at Ankara. As he expertly guides us through this extraordinary
story so the compelling parallels between past and present become strikingly clear and he
illuminates this troubled nation with a deep sympathy and love for the people and places he
writes about. By focussing on one key event - one which many Turks regard with shame - this
evocative gripping portrait of Turkey recentres our understanding of the past and makes sense
of one of Europe's most bewildering yet intriguing neighbours.'A wonderful writer' Robert
Macfarlane
