List of Turkish diplomats assassinated by Armenian militant organisations

Ahmet Benler's Volkswagen

This is a list of Turkish diplomats and other officials assassinated by Armenian militant organisations. The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) and Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) were Armenian nationalist militant groups ^[1] that targeted Turkish diplomats and officials in Europe, the Middle East, and North America in a series of bombings, shootings, and other attacks. ^[2] The group aimed to draw international attention to the Armenian genocide and to pressure Turkey to acknowledge the killings as a genocide. ^[3] The attacks resulted in the deaths of dozens of people, including Turkish diplomats, embassy staff, and bystanders, and injured many more. ^[4] The group's actions were widely condemned by the international community including the Reagan administration that labelled the assassinations as terrorism. ^{[5] [6] [7]} In the following years, the international community's response led to a wave of arrests and extraditions of ASALA members. ^{[8] [9]} The ASALA and JCAG attacks and the Armenian genocide remain highly sensitive and controversial topics in Turkey, ^[10] and discussions of the events are often met with strong emotions and heated political debates. ^[11] Despite this, the attacks serve as a reminder of the ongoing tensions and historical wounds that continue to affect Armenian-Turkish relations to this day. ^[12]

List of ambassadors

Ambassador	Status	Diplomatic mission	Assassination date	Ref.
İsmail Erez	Fully accredited	Paris, France	24 October 1975	[13] [14] [15]
Daniş Tunalıgil	Fully accredited	Vienna, Austria	27 October 1975	[16]
Taha Carım	Fully accredited	Vatican City	9 June 1977	[17]
Beşir Balcıoğlu	Not active	Madrid, Spain	2 June 1978	[18]
Galip Balkar	Fully accredited	Belgrade, Serbia	9 March 1983	[19]

List of high-ranking diplomats

Diplomat	Title	Diplomatic mission	Assassination date	Ref.
Mehmet Baydar	Consul general	Santa Barbara, California	27 January 1973	[8]
Bahadır Demir	Consul
Oktar Cirit	First secretary	Beirut, Lebanon	16 February 1976	[20] [21]
Şarık Arıyak	Consul general	Sydney, Australia	17 December 1980	[22] [23] [24]
Kemal Arıkan	Consul general	Los Angeles, California	28 January 1982
Orhan Gündüz	Honorary consul general	Somerville, Massachusetts	4 May 1982

List of security officials

Individual	Military rank	Title	Diplomatic mission	Assassination date	Ref.
Talip Yener	N/A	Driver	Paris, France	24 October 1975	[25]
Engin Sever	N/A	Security attaché	Sydney, Australia	17 December 1980	[22] [23] [24]
Cemal Özen	N/A	Security attaché	Paris, France	24 September 1981
Atilla Altıkat	Air Force Colonel	Military attaché	Ottawa, Canada	27 August 1982	[26]

List of general staff

Diplomat	Title	Diplomatic mission	Assassination date	Ref.
Yılmaz Çolpan	Tourism counsellor	Paris, France	22 December 1979	[27]
Galip Özmen	Administrative attaché	Athens, Greece	31 July 1980	[28] [29] [30]
Reşat Moralı	Labour attaché	Paris, France	4 March 1981
Tecelli Arı	Religion officer	Paris, France
Mehmet Savaş Yergüç	Secretary	Geneva, Switzerland	9 June 1981
Erkut Akbay	Administrative attaché	Lisbon, Portugal	7 June 1982	[31]
Bora Süelkan	Administrative attaché	Burgas, Bulgaria	9 September 1982
Dursun Aksoy	Administrative attaché	Brussels, Belgium	14 July 1983	[32] [33] [34]
Erdoğan Özen	Labour attaché	Vienna, Austria	20 June 1984
Evner Ergun	United Nations officer	Vienna, Austria	19 November 1984

List of family members

Individual	Relation	Diplomatic mission	Assassination date	Ref.
Necla Kuneralp	Spouse of incumbent ambassador	Madrid, Spain	2 June 1978	[18]
Ahmet Benler	Son of incumbent ambassador	The Hague, Netherlands	12 October 1979	[35]
Neslihan Özmen	Daughter of incumbent administrative attaché	Athens, Greece	31 July 1980	[28] [29] [30]
Nadide Akbay	Spouse of incumbent administrative attaché	Lisbon, Portugal	11 January 1983	[36]
Cahide Mıhçıoğlu	Spouse of incumbent charge d'affaires	Lisbon, Portugal	27 July 1983	[37]
Işık Yönder	Spouse of a secretary	Tehran, Iran	28 April 1984	[38]

Further reading

• Peterson, Merrill D. (2004). "Starving Armenians" : America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and after. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. ISBN   0-8139-2267-4. OCLC   52901294.
• Howard, Douglas A. (2001). The history of Turkey. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 161. ISBN   0-313-00240-1. OCLC   50321768.
• Singer, Amy; Neumann, Christoph K.; Somel, Selçuk Akşin (2011). Untold histories of the Middle East : recovering voices from the 19th and 20th centuries. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. 27. ISBN   978-0-203-84536-3. OCLC   658189067.
• Hoffman, Bruce (2017). Inside terrorism. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 71. ISBN   978-0-231-17476-3. OCLC   971893153.
• Jessup, John E. (1998). An encyclopedic dictionary of conflict and conflict resolution, 1945-1996. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 39. ISBN   0-313-04676-X. OCLC   57582519.
• Wieviorka, Michel (1993). The making of terrorism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 256. ISBN   0-226-89650-1. OCLC   28111107.
• Göçek, Fatma Müge (2011). The transformation of Turkey : redefining state and society from the Ottoman Empire to the modern era. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 151. ISBN   978-0-85771-968-3. OCLC   740225800.

See also

• Turkish consulate attack in Paris
• Esenboğa Airport attack
• 1983 Orly Airport attack
• List of attacks by ASALA
• List of attacks by JCAG

References

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