3000 Lira Republic's Anniversary

Issued to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Turkish Republic, founded October 29, 1923, when Mustafa Kemal formally abolished the sultanate and declared the new state before the Grand National Assembly. By 1983, Turkey was minting this piece under military-guided civilian transition — the 1980 coup had dissolved parliament, and the country was only just returning to electoral government under the new constitution ratified in November 1982.

The timing gives this coin an uncomfortable double meaning: a celebration of republican founding issued by a government that had just suspended it.