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    Categories: 2020

Turkish press: Turkey remembers diplomat killed in US in 1982 – Turkey News

Turkey remembered with respect its late distinguished diplomat Kemal Arıkan, who was the victim of an assassination on Jan. 28, 1982.

Arıkan, Turkey’s consul general in Los Angeles, was killed by Armenian terrorists affiliated with JCAG, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said on Twitter.

"We call on the relevant U.S. Authorities not to release Hampig Sassounian, who brutally assassinated Consul General Arıkan," said the ministry.

On Dec. 27 a California court ordered the conditional release of Sassounian, one of the assassins being Arıkan’s deliberate murder.

"Granting parole to this murderer will only serve the hands of extremists worldwide and give the message that hate crimes and terrorist attacks against foreign diplomats on duty can be pardoned," the statement said.

The ministry also urged the international community "to show solidarity against such an outcome, which would establish an extremely dangerous precedent."

Arıkan was shot to death 14 times by Sassounian and Krikor Saliba. Saliba escaped justice, but Sassounian was arrested and in 1984, he was sentenced to life in prison.

Since the 1970s, Armenian terror groups killed 31 Turkish diplomats and their family members.

The vast majority of the attacks were conducted by ASALA and JCAG.

The assassinations took place in the U.S., Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Lebanon, Greece, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, Portugal, Iran, and the U.K.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS