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List of Turkish diplomats assassinated by Armenian militant organisations

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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

[edit]
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

[edit]
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

[edit]
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

[edit]
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

[edit]
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

[edit]
  • 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

[edit]

References

[edit]
  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. ^ a b "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. ^ a b "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. ^ a b "Assassination of Turkish Consul-General and his bodyguard - NSW Police Public Site". police.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  23. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b "Turkish Envoy Is Slain in Athens". The New York Times. 1 August 1980. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  29. ^ a b "Turk killed in Greece The Spokesman Review - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  30. ^ a b 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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