Turkey's Youngest Executed Prisoner Remembered Decades After Coup

Friends and supporters gathered this week at the grave of Erdal Eren, whose 1980 execution remains a potent symbol of Turkey's military rule. Eren was executed on December 13, 1980. He was 17 years old. The execution occurred just three months after the September 12 military coup. A military court had convicted him of killing a soldier. Before his execution, authorities legally changed his birth records. This made him officially 18 years old, the minimum age for execution under Turkish law at that time. His case became a focal point for critics of the coup-era government. They argued the age change showed a determination to carry out the death sentence. The annual memorial highlights a divisive period in modern Turkish history. Eren's story is still cited in debates about justice, military rule, and the legacy of the 1980 coup.