Adnan Menderes was a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister of Turkey between 1950 and 1960. He was one of the founders of the Democrat Party (DP) in 1946, the fourth legal opposition party of Turkey. He was tried and hanged under the military junta after the 1960 coup d'état, along with two other cabinet members, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan. One of the accusations brought against him was of him ordering the Istanbul pogrom against citizens of Greek ethnicity. He was the last Turkish political leader to be executed after a military coup and is also one of the four political leaders of the Turkish Republic to have had a mausoleum built in his honour.

The 1960 Turkish coup d'état also known as the 27th May Revolution was the first coup d'état in the Republic of Turkey. It took place on May 27, 1960. The coup was staged by a group of 38 young Turkish military officers, acting outside the military chain of command. The officers were de facto led by Cemal Madanoğlu until the actual coup date. After a threat by Ragıp Gümüşpala that he would move to quell the coup unless it was led by someone with a higher military rank than himself, the officers brought in General Cemal Gürsel as their leader. The coup was carried out against the democratically elected government of the Democrat Party, and ultimately resulted in the execution of its prime minister, Adnan Menderes, alongside two of his ministers, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan.