List of Turkish diplomats assassinated by Armenian militant organisations

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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]

Contents

List of ambassadors

AmbassadorStatusDiplomatic missionAssassination dateRef.
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 BalcıoğluNot active Madrid, Spain 2 June 1978 [18]
Galip Balkar Fully accredited Belgrade, Serbia 9 March 1983 [19]

List of high-ranking diplomats

DiplomatTitleDiplomatic missionAssassination dateRef.
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 Los Angeles, California 4 May 1982

List of security officials

IndividualMilitary rankTitleDiplomatic missionAssassination dateRef.
Talip YenerN/ADriver Paris, France 24 October 1975 [25]
Engin SeverN/ASecurity attaché Sydney, Australia 17 December 1980 [22] [23] [24]
Cemal ÖzenN/ASecurity attaché Paris, France 24 September 1981
Atilla Altıkat Air Force ColonelMilitary attaché Ottawa, Canada 27 August 1982 [26]

List of general staff

DiplomatTitleDiplomatic missionAssassination dateRef.
Yılmaz ÇolpanTourism counsellor Paris, France 22 December 1979 [27]
Galip ÖzmenAdministrative attaché Athens, Greece 31 July 1980 [28] [29] [30]
Reşat MoralıLabour attaché Paris, France 4 March 1981
Tecelli ArıReligion officer Paris, France
Mehmet Savaş YergüçSecretary Geneva, Switzerland 9 June 1981
Erkut Akbay Administrative attaché Lisbon, Portugal 7 June 1982 [31]
Bora SüelkanAdministrative attaché Burgas, Bulgaria 9 September 1982
Dursun Aksoy Administrative attaché Brussels, Belgium 14 July 1983 [32] [33] [34]
Erdoğan ÖzenLabour attaché Vienna, Austria 20 June 1984
Evner ErgunUnited Nations officer Vienna, Austria 19 November 1984

List of family members

IndividualRelationDiplomatic missionAssassination dateRef.
Necla KuneralpSpouse 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 YönderSpouse of a secretary Tehran, Iran 28 April 1984 [38]

Further reading

See also

Related Research Articles

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Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was a militant organization active between 1975 and the 1990s whose stated goal was "to compel the Turkish Government to acknowledge publicly its responsibility for the Armenian genocide in 1915, pay reparations, and cede territory for an Armenian homeland." ASALA itself and other sources described it as a guerilla and armed organization. Some sources, including United States Department of State, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan listed it as a terrorist organization.

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Terrorism in Turkey is a significant issue for Turkish authorities as 1.6 million people were investigated after being accused of terrorism between 2016 and 2020. Prominent figures of the Turkish opposition were accused of an alleged membership of a terrorist group. The definition of terrorism in Turkey is rather vague as it also includes a social media post or taking part in popular protests. Terrorist attacks in Turkey have occurred in the southeastern and eastern provinces, and major cities like Ankara and Istanbul. The group Dev-Genç was founded in 1969 and involved in a string of kidnappings, bombings and bank robberies until martial law was declared in 1971. While these incidents were halted by 1973, attacks by the Armenian groups Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) and Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) continued. Most of these attacks took place internationally, though there were some attacks within Turkey as well. For example, the May 1977 bombing of the Istanbul airport and the Ankara Esenboğa Airport attack. In Turkey protesting for Kurdish rights or supporting or demanding education in the Kurdish language is often also seen as supporting terrorism of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

References

  1. ↑ Francis P. Hyland, Armenian Terrorism: the Past, the Present, the Prospects, Boulder-San Francisco-Oxford: Westview Press, 1991, pp. 61–62;
  2. ↑ Gaïdz Minassian, Guerre et terrorisme arméniens, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 2002, pp. 32–34 and 106–109.
  3. ↑ "Diplomat memorial stirs controversy". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 21 September 2012. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  4. ↑ "Das Armenier-Problem, Behauptungen – Tatsachen". Archived from the original on 11 January 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ↑ Fortier, Donald. "Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Digital Library Collections, Collection: "Fortier, Donald: Files," Folder Title: "Turkish Armenian File: [US Department of State Remarks on the Armenian Genocide]," Box: RAC Box 19" (PDF). Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. pp. 8–10, 42. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
  6. ↑ United States Department of State. Patterns of Global Terrorism Report: 1989 Archived 2014-02-19 at the Wayback Machine , p 57
  7. ↑ Michel Wieviorka, David Gordon White. The making of terrorism. University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN   0-226-89650-1, ISBN   978-0-226-89650-2, p. 256
  8. 1 2 "Beaver County Times - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  9. ↑ von John E. Jessup (1998). An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945–1996. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 39–40, 543, 841. ISBN   0-313-28112-2.
  10. ↑ Rubin, Barry M.; Rubin, Judith Colp (2008). Chronologies of Modern Terrorism. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN   978-0-7656-2206-8.
  11. ↑ Gottschlich, Jürgen (2015). Beihilfe zum Völkermord: Deutschlands Rolle bei der Vernichtung der Armenier (in German). Ch. Links Verlag. ISBN   978-3-86153-817-2.
  12. ↑ Morris, Benny (2019). The thirty-year genocide : Turkey's destruction of its Christian minorities, 1894-1924. Dror Zeʼevi. Cambridge, Massachusetts. ISBN   978-0-674-91645-6. OCLC   1044768992.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. ↑ "Incident Summary for GTDID: 197510220001". UMD Global Terrorism Database. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. Archived from the original on 30 October 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  14. ↑ "Armenians Web Portal". Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
  15. ↑ "Observer Reporter". 25 October 1975. Retrieved 28 September 2012.
  16. ↑ Cindy, C. Combs; W. Slann, Martin (2007). "Encyclopedia of Terrorism". Infobase Publishing: 394. ISBN   978-1-4381-1019-6.
  17. ↑ "Incident Summary for GTDID: 197706090001". UMD Global Terrorism Database. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  18. 1 2 "Incident Summary for GTDID: 197806020002". UMD Global Terrorism Database. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  19. ↑ Terrorist Group Profiles. ISBN   1-56806-864-6. August 1989, p. 53
  20. ↑ "Turkey remembers diplomat killed in Beirut in 1976 - Turkey News". Hürriyet Daily News. 17 February 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  21. ↑ Şehit Diplomatlarımız (1973-1994). Ankara: Bilgi Yayınevi. 2000. ISBN   975-494-924-7.
  22. 1 2 "Assassination of Turkish Consul-General and his bodyguard - NSW Police Public Site". police.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  23. 1 2 Molloy, Roger Collier, Paul Molloy and Susan (13 August 2020). "From the Archives, 1980: Political murder in a quiet Sydney street". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 September 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. 1 2 Cormack, Lucy (13 August 2020). "'Calculated act of terror:' Police divers find clues in 40-year-old assassination mystery". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  25. ↑ Barry Rubin, Barry M. Rubin, Judith Colp Rubin, "Chronologies of modern terrorism Archived 2016-12-28 at the Wayback Machine , M.E. Sharpe, 2008, p. 69
  26. ↑ "Monument honoring Turkish diplomat opens in Ottawa". Hürriyet Daily News. 21 September 2012. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  27. ↑ "Incident Summary for GTDID: 197912220006". UMD Global Terrorism Database. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  28. 1 2 "Turkish Envoy Is Slain in Athens". The New York Times. 1 August 1980. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  29. 1 2 "Turk killed in Greece The Spokesman Review - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  30. 1 2 Melkonian, Markar (2008). My Brother's Road: an American's Fateful Journey to Armenia. I.B. Tauris & Company, Limited. pp. 84–85. ISBN   1-84511-530-9.
  31. ↑ "AROUND THE WORLD; Turkish Envoy in Lisbon Is Killed by Gunman". The New York Times. Reuters. 8 June 1982. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  32. ↑ Upi (15 July 1983). "AROUND THE WORLD; Turk Slain in Brussels; Armenians Claim Deed". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  33. ↑ "The Montreal Gazette - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  34. ↑ "Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  35. ↑ "Incident Summary for GTDID: 197910120003". UMD Global Terrorism Database. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  36. ↑ Ap (11 January 1983). "Turk Wounded in June Attack By Armenian Terrorists Dies". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  37. ↑ "Ermeni terör örgütleri 31 Türk diplomat ve yakınını şehit etti". www.trthaber.com (in Turkish). 22 October 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  38. ↑ "Zonguldaklı ASALA Şehidi". Zonguldak Pusula Son Dakika Haberleri (in Turkish). Retrieved 28 March 2023.
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