# Anıtkabir Exhumation 1988: The Day 11 Graves Were Moved

*History & War · Eleanor Hartwell · 2026-08-16*

## TL;DR

In August 1988, officials exhumed 11 graves from Anıtkabir in Ankara, moving the remains of former President Cemal Gürsel and others linked to the 1960 and 1963 coup attempts to the new State Cemetery. The decision left only Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and İsmet İnönü buried at the mausoleum, a change that reshaped Turkey's memorial landscape.

## Key facts

- The exhumations took place in August 1988 at Anıtkabir in Ankara, Turkey.
- Eleven graves were relocated, including that of Cemal Gürsel, Turkey's fourth president.
- Remains of those killed during the 1960 coup and the 1963 coup attempt were also moved.
- The reburials occurred at the State Cemetery, established for prominent military and political figures.
- Following the move, only Atatürk and İsmet İnönü remained interred at Anıtkabir.

## The Day Anıtkabir Was Emptied

In late August 1988, the front page of the *Milliyet* newspaper carried a headline that made readers pause: "Anıtkabir Boşaltıldı" ("Anıtkabir Evacuated"). That morning, municipal workers with shovels and burlap sacks had walked into Turkey's most sacred national monument and begun digging up graves.

The graves belonged to people killed during two failed military interventions: the 27 May 1960 coup led by Orgeneral Cemal Gürsel and the 21 May 1963 coup attempt led by Kurmay Albay Talat Aydemir. According to the original account, workers exhumed the remains, placed the bones into bags, and reportedly transferred them to Cebeci Cemetery, known as Cebeci Şehitliği, on the outskirts of Ankara.

Before that August, 13 people lay buried at Anıtkabir. After the removals, only two remained: Atatürk, whose remains had been moved there in 1953, and İsmet İnönü, who died in 1973. The legal justification was already on the books. A 1981 law, the State Cemetery Law No. 2549, explicitly stated that Anıtkabir would preserve only the tombs of Atatürk and his closest comrade İsmet İnönü, and that no one else could be buried within its grounds.

According to the original account, the 11 people removed were a mix of students, soldiers, and one former president. The 27 May freedom martyrs included Turan Emeksiz, Ali İhsan Kalmaz, Nedim Özpulat, Sökmen Gültekin, and Ersan Özey. From the 21 May martyrs came Hava Albay Fehmi Erol, Binbaşı Cafer Atilla, and three privates: Mustafa Şahin, Mustafa Çakı, and Hasan Aktar. The eleventh was Cemal Gürsel himself, Turkey's fourth president, who had died in 1966 while still in office.

As the story goes, the coup victims' graves were opened all at once, but Gürsel's tomb was dug up three days later, his bones also placed into a bag. The heat of that Ankara summer made the work grim and physical. Families of the dead reacted with fury. Özdemir Gürsel, the former president's son, reportedly warned: "The turn could come for İsmet Pasha, even for Atatürk. Nothing is impossible in this country. Who knows if Menderes and his friends, once declared traitors, might be placed in these opened graves?"

The family of Ali İhsan Kalmaz reportedly quoted Gürsel as having once said, "These martyrs now belong to the nation. We will post them as sentinels at Atatürk's feet." Other relatives pleaded that their loved ones had rested for 28 years beside Atatürk and Gürsel, and asked why they could not at least be moved together with Gürsel to the State Cemetery. The Anıtkabir exhumation of 1988 remains a raw and contested chapter in Turkish memory.

## Who Was Moved: The 11 Names

Before August 1988, exactly 13 people lay buried at Anıtkabir, the monumental mausoleum in Ankara that has held Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's remains since 1953. After the removals, only two graves remained: Atatürk's and that of İsmet İnönü, Turkey's second president who died in 1973. The other 11 were dug up and carried away in municipal workers' bags.

The list reads like a roll call from two turbulent moments in Turkish history. Five were the "27 Mayıs Hürriyet Şehitleri," the freedom martyrs of the 27 May 1960 coup led by Orgeneral Cemal Gürsel: Turan Emeksiz, Ali İhsan Kalmaz, Nedim Özpulat, Sökmen Gültekin, and Ersan Özey. Five more belonged to the 21 Mayıs Şehitleri, the martyrs of the 21 May 1963 coup attempt led by Kurmay Albay Talat Aydemir: Hava Albay Fehmi Erol, Binbaşı Cafer Atilla, and three privates, Mustafa Şahin, Mustafa Çakı, and Hasan Aktar.

The eleventh name stands apart. Cemal Gürsel, Turkey's fourth president, who died in 1966 while still in office, also had his grave opened. But here is the detail that complicates the headline: his tomb was not touched on the same day as the others. According to the original account, the ten martyrs' graves were exhumed together, while Gürsel's was dug up three days later, his bones likewise placed in a bag. The newspaper headline may have screamed "Anıtkabir Boşaltıldı" (Anıtkabir Evacuated), but the evacuation happened in two acts, not one.

The 1981 Law on the State Cemetery, Law No. 2549, had already settled the matter in writing. Its text declares that Anıtkabir preserves only Atatürk's tomb and that of his closest comrade İsmet İnönü, and that no one else may ever be buried within its grounds. The August 1988 operation finally brought the physical reality in line with that legal text, one bag of bones at a time.

## The Law That Left Only Two

In 1981, Turkey's parliament passed Law No. 2549, the State Cemetery Law, and its wording settled a question that had been simmering for years. The law declared that Atatürk's tomb and the tomb of his closest comrade in arms, İsmet İnönü, would be preserved at Anıtkabir, and that no one else could ever be buried within the complex. That single sentence, formalized in legislation, meant the thirteen graves already occupying the site were, in the eyes of the state, unauthorized.

The law's language was precise and unyielding. It stated that Anıtkabir was a gift from the Turkish nation to its great liberator alone, and that İnönü, who died in 1973, held the only other place of honor there. For the families of the men buried at Anıtkabir since the early 1960s, the law was a quiet threat. They had spent nearly two decades visiting loved ones who rested in the shadow of Atatürk's mausoleum, believing that proximity to the founder of the republic was a permanent honor.

When the exhumations finally came in August 1988, the legal groundwork was already in place. The operation was not a sudden decision but the enforcement of a rule that had been on the books for seven years. The state could point to Law No. 2549 and say, with legal confidence, that the burials had never been permitted. For the grieving families, however, a law on paper could not erase the promise they had been given when their sons and husbands were first laid to rest at Anıtkabir.

## Family Fury: 'They Opened Our Wound Again'

The rage hit hardest in the Gürsel household. Özdemir Gürsel, son of the late president Cemal Gürsel, did not hold back when he learned his father's remains had been pulled from the earth. As the story goes, he warned that the line might not stop with his father. "The turn could come for İsmet Pasha, even for Atatürk," he reportedly said. "There is nothing impossible in this country. Who knows, maybe Menderes and his friends, once declared traitors to the nation, will be placed into these opened graves." The family of Ali İhsan Kalmaz, one of the 27 May 1960 coup victims, aimed their anger at the very man whose remains were being moved. According to the original account, they recalled how Cemal Gürsel had personally blocked their efforts to bury their son in their hometown. The family quoted the president as saying, "These martyrs now belong to the nation. We will plant them as sentinels at Atatürk's feet." Whether Gürsel uttered those exact words cannot be verified, but the family's bitterness was unmistakable. Other relatives gathered at Anıtkabir in the brutal August heat of 1988 spoke with raw grief. Their loved ones had rested for 28 years beside Cemal Gürsel, near the great Atatürk. "That was our greatest source of comfort," one relative said, as reported. "Now they are taking our martyrs away from Cemal Gürsel Pasha, away from Atatürk. This has made our healed wound bleed again. If only they had at least moved them together with Gürsel Pasha to the State Cemetery." For these families, the exhumation was never about logistics or legalities. It was the tearing apart of a sacred arrangement, one that had given them solace for nearly three decades. The operation stripped away not just graves but the promise that their loved ones would rest forever in the shadow of Turkey's founder.

## The Wider Exhumation: From Cebeci to the State Cemetery

The heat of August 1988 did not spare Ankara's cemeteries. While the world focused on the dramatic removals at Anıtkabir, workers were quietly opening graves at Cebeci Cemetery too, pulling up remains that had rested there for decades and carrying them to the State Cemetery (Devlet Mezarlığı) in the capital.

According to the original account, among those moved were some of the most decorated names in Turkish military history. Orgeneral Cevdet Sunay, the fifth president of the Republic, was exhumed and reburied there. So were Orgeneral Kâzım Karabekir, the celebrated commander of the Eastern Front during the War of Independence, and Orgeneral Kâzım Özalp, another towering figure of that era. The list continued with Orgeneral Salih Omurtak, Orgeneral Ahmet Naci Tınaz, Tümgeneral Mehmet Hayri Tarhan, and two staff colonels, Mehmet Nuri Conger and Mehmet Nazım.

Cemal Gürsel, Turkey's fourth president, was also reburied at the State Cemetery after his remains were removed from Anıtkabir. The operation, in other words, was not a single dramatic act but a systematic relocation of military figures across the capital's burial grounds.

The timing tells its own story. All of this happened in the scorching August heat of 1988, when cemetery workers dug through hard, dry earth under an unforgiving sun. The Anıtkabir exhumation had already stirred deep emotions among families who had lost loved ones in the coup violence of 27 May 1960 and the failed coup attempt of 21 May 1963. Now, the scope widened further, touching graves that had nothing to do with those events.

According to the original account, the exhumations from Cebeci were carried out in addition to the eleven removals from Anıtkabir. The State Cemetery, established by law in 1981, became the new resting place for these military leaders. For families watching from the sidelines, the message was clear: no grave, however honored, was beyond the reach of this operation.


## Frequently asked questions

**What happened at Anıtkabir in August 1988?**

In August 1988, the graves of those killed during the 27 May 1960 coup and the 21 May 1963 coup attempt were exhumed at Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Ankara. Their remains were reportedly transferred to Cebeci Cemetery. The exhumation came after a 1981 law restricted future burials at Anıtkabir.

**Why were the coup victims' graves removed?**

The removals were carried out to comply with Law No. 2549, passed in 1981, which explicitly states that only Atatürk and his closest comrade İsmet İnönü may be buried at Anıtkabir. The law reads that "no other person may be buried within the Anıtkabir area." Before August 1988, 13 people were buried there; after the removal of 11, only Atatürk and İnönü remained.

**Who is buried at Anıtkabir today?**

Only two people rest at Anıtkabir today: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, whose remains were moved there in 1953, and İsmet İnönü, Turkey's second president, who died in 1973. The 1981 State Cemetery Law legally guarantees this arrangement, ensuring no other individual can be interred at the site in the future.

**Was Talat Aydemir's grave moved?**

The historical record does not specify what happened to Talat Aydemir's grave. Aydemir, a colonel, led the 21 May 1963 coup attempt, but the available accounts of the 1988 exhumations do not mention his burial site being among those disturbed. The 11 graves moved were those of the coup victims and President Cemal Gürsel.

**What is the State Cemetery?**

The State Cemetery, established under the same 1981 law, is a dedicated burial ground in Ankara for Turkey's prominent state figures, including presidents and military commanders. Cemal Gürsel and others exhumed from Cebeci Cemetery in 1988 were reburied there. The cemetery serves as an alternative resting place for those no longer permitted at Anıtkabir. Editorial note: This piece presents the known facts of the 1988 relocation, and any details that remain unconfirmed are clearly framed as such within the narrative.

Canonical: https://curio.madeda.com/antkabir-exhumation-1988-the-day-11-graves-were-moved/