He was arrested along with some other party members, charged with violating the constitution, and put on trial on the island of Yassıada. The 1961 Yassıada trials after the 1960 coup d'état accused Menderes and Foreign Minister Zorlu of planning the Istanbul Pogrom. Though both of them rejected the claims, it is believed by scholars that Menderes assented to the organization of protests in İstanbul against the Greeks, but the extent of knowledge of Zorlu, who had been in London for the conference, is unclear. According to Zorlu's lawyer at the Yassiada trial, a mob of 300,000 was marshaled in a radius of around the city for the attacks.