"One cold day in 1979, daily Milliyet editor in chief Abdi İpekçi was shot to death in Istanbul while returning home from work. His murderer, Mehmet Ali Ağca, was released Monday after 10 years in prison for this crime, prompting Tuesday’s banner headline story in his former paper, “Abdi İpekçi was killed once again.”Journalists in Turkey agree that the release of Ağca has caused a deep wound in the public conscience due to the imbalance in magnitude between the crime and the penalty.
Daily Milliyet, a sister newspaper of the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, deviated from its standard format Tuesday to print on its front page a Dec. 4, 1975, editorial by İpekçi in which the former editor in chief had warned that there was “a horrible game” being played. Although it has never been proven, many believe that İpekçi was murdered due to his journalistic investigations. Although Ağca himself denies any connection to the far-right political group the Grey Wolves, it is an open secret in Turkey that he acted at their behest.
Although how Ağca fled the country remains unclear, he traveled to Italy and attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981. Although he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Italy, Ağca was pardoned by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in June 2000 at the pope’s request. He was then extradited to Turkey, where he was imprisoned for the 1979 murder of İpekçi and two bank raids carried out in the 1970s.
When Ağca was released "for good behavior" on January 18, 2010 a group aof supporters waited Ağca’s release in front of the prison in the traditional celebratory manner with drum and clarion, drawing further criticism. “His release in this fashion and the greeting he received wounded everyone’s conscience for both press freedom and for all the other unsolved murders,” said Ferai Tınç, a daily Hürriyet columnist and the International Press Institute, IPI’s, Turkish national committee chairwoman."
Note EU-Digest: the above report from the Hürriyet was written one year ago after Ağca’s release from prison on January 18, 2010.
According to Wikipedia, Ağca was born in the Hekimhan district, Malatya Province in Turkey. As a youth, he became a petty criminal and a member of street gangs in his home town. He became a smuggler between Turkey and Bulgaria. He claims to have received two months of training in weaponry and terrorist tactics in Syria as a member of the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine paid for by the Communist Bulgarian government. After training he went to work for the far-right Turkish Grey Wolves, who were at the time destabilizing Turkey, which led to a Turkish military coup in 1980 . It has been claimed the Grey Wolves were also being used by the CIA.
Kendal Nezan of the Kurdish Institute of Paris says they were infiltrated and manipulated by "Gladio" a "stay-behind" NATO structure.
During his stay in prison Ağca became a Christian. Some people believe he did this for PR purposes to put the Turkish Government under pressure as to the negative publicity the Government would get from abroad if he was treated harshly.
The French Agence France Presse" reported that Turkish authorities still haven't explained exactly which legal resources Ağca had access to, and former Turkish minister of Justice Hikmet Sami Türk, in government at the time of Ağca's extradition claimed, that from a legal viewpoint, Ağca liberation was a "serious mistake" at best, and that he should have not been freed at the earliest before 2012.
One year after Ağca release the mystery around him still remains..
For more: Turkish press: İpekçi killed again with release of murderer - Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review
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