Sadi Koçaş

Following his graduation Koçaş worked in the Turkish Army and in the Ministry of Defense.^[1] He was a military attaché in Bucharest, Socialist Republic of Romania, between 1954 and 1956.^[3] He was first involved in the secret activities in November 1954 to carry out a military coup against the government led by Prime Minister Adnan Menderes.^[4] During this period Koçaş was a major.^[4] In 1957 he formed another secret group of the military officers in Ankara against the government.^[5] In February 1959 he managed to get support from Cemal Gürsel, commander of land forces, to implement the planned coup.^[5] Shortly after these activities Koçaş was sent to London as a military attaché which he held until 1961.^[3] He retired from the army with the rank of colonel in 1961.^[3]

Cemal Gürsel, leader of the 1960 military coup and President of Turkey, appointed Koçaş as a senator in 1962.^[6] He served at the Senate until his resignation in 1969.^[1] Then he joined the Republican People's Party and was elected as a deputy from Konya.^[3] On 26 March 1971 he was appointed deputy prime minister to the cabinet led by Prime Minister Nihat Erim which had been formed shortly after the Turkish military memorandum on 12 March.^[3][7] Koçaş's ministerial portfolio included political and administrative affairs.^[7][8] Koçaş and eleven other cabinet members resigned from their posts on 3 December 1971.^[3] Following this incident he retired from politics.^[1]

Koçaş was married and had two daughters.^[1] He died in Istanbul on 12 January 1998 and was buried in the Zincirlikuyu cemetery next day.^[9]

Koçaş is the author of several non-fiction books.^[1] Two of his books were his memoirs which were published in 1977 and 1978.^[10] In these books Koçaş reports the existence of an extremely secret service within the state apparatus which was allegedly led by Fuat Doğu, the undersecretary of Turkish National Intelligence Agency.^[10] This claim was also shared by Prime Minister Nihat Erim, and they managed to remove Fuat Doğu from office.^[10]

Koçaş also published a book on the history of Armenians and the relations between Armenians and Turks in 1990.^[11]