He rose to national attention at a relatively young age when, after the 1960 Turkish coup d'état, he became part of the defence team for the imprisoned, and later executed ex-Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and other Democratic Party notables. Despite the final verdict in the case, the one-year-long desperate efforts by the defence team gained widespread respect across Turkey. After the restoration of the civilian rule, he joined the Justice Party and two military coups later, after the 1980 military coup in Turkey, he became in 1985 the Secretary General of the True Path Party, a continuation of the Justice Party in the forced absence from politics of its leader Süleyman Demirel.