Ankara Esenboğa Airport attack
The Ankara Esenboğa Airport attack was a terrorist attack on Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Ankara, Turkey, located 28 km (17 mi) northeast of Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. The airport has been in operation since 1955. The attack was perpetrated by Zohrab Sarkissian and Levon Ekmekjian of the "Khrimian Hayrik Suicide Squad" and the "Pierre Gulumian commando" group[1] from the Armenian militant organization Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (known as ASALA) on 7 August 1982.[2] The attack killed nine people and injured 72 others.
| Ankara Esenboğa Airport attack | |
|---|---|
| Location | Ankara Esenboğa Airport, Ankara, Turkey |
| Coordinates | 40°07′41″N 032°59′42″E |
| Date | 7 August 1982 16:00 – 19:00 (EEST) |
| Target | Passengers and staff |
Attack type | Bombing, mass shooting, hostage taking |
| Weapons | IED, submachine guns |
| Deaths | 9 (+ 1 attacker) |
| Injured | 72 |
| Perpetrators | Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia |
No. of participants | 2 |
Attack
The attack was carried out by Zohrab Sarkissian and Levon Ekmekjian (Ekmekdjian, Ekmekçiyan), who detonated a bomb in the middle of the crowded check-in area at Ankara's Esenboğa Airport, and then opened fire with submachine guns on passport control officers and passengers, going through passport control for a KLM flight. The witnesses said that one of the perpetrators had kept firing at the fleeing passengers while shouting, "More than a million of us died, what does it matter if 25 of you die?"[3]
The gunmen then fled into the cafeteria, where they took 20 people hostage. Security forces rushed into the cafeteria, killing Sarkissian and wounding Ekmekjian, who was then arrested.
Victims
As result of the attack and the ensuing two-hour shootout, nine people were killed and 72 were wounded.[4] The dead were three Turkish police officers, three Turkish passengers, a Turkish airport worker, an American woman, and a West German engineer.[5]
| Country | Dead |
|---|---|
 |
7 |
 |
1 |
 |
1 |
| Total | 9 |
Responsibility
ASALA claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call and a communique delivered to the Associated Press office in Beirut, by the Pierre Gulumian commando group" of the ASALA and said that it was a protest against "the Turkish fascist occupation of our land." The ASALA statement said that the responsibility for "the innocent victims" of the Ankara airport attack was "on the shoulders of the enemies of peaceful peoples: the Turkish Government, NATO and the United States." They also warned of further attacks in various Western countries unless 85 Armenians imprisoned in those countries were freed within seven days.
Attackers
Zohrab Sarkissian
Zohrab Sarkissian (alternatively Sarkisyan, in Armenian Զօհրապ Սարգիսեան) born in 1958 was an Armenian member of ASALA and co-perpetrator of the ASALA attack on the Esenboğa International Airport. He was killed by Turkish police during the Esenboğa International Airport attack. There is a memorial burial for Sarkissian in Yerablur, near Yerevan, Armenia in a pantheon for deceased ASALA fighters.
Levon Ekmekjian
Levon Ekmekjian (alternatively Ekmekdjian or in the Turkish press Ekmekçiyan, in Armenian Լեւոն Էքմէքճեան) was Lebanese Armenian member of ASALA. He was born in 1958 in Bourj Hamoud, an Armenian quarter near Beirut, Lebanon. He was co-perpetrator of the ASALA attack on the Esenboğa International Airport. He was seriously injured by the Turkish security police during the operation and was captured alive.
When Levon Ekmekjian was told by Turkish police that the gunmen had killed nine people and wounded 72 others, he furiously shouted, "It wasn't enough!"[6]
However, during the trial by Ankara martial law command military court he said: "I came here motivated by a belief. However, after this incident, I understand how ridiculous and wrong that belief was."[7]
Ekmekjian was found guilty of carrying out armed action with the aim of separating the whole or part of the state territory and placing it under the sovereignty of another state and sentenced to death on 7 September 1982.[7]
While in prison, Ekmekjian wrote a letter, in which he expressed his remorse about killing innocent people and admonished other ASALA members to give up violence.[8][9]
His appeal of the sentence was declined, and he was hanged on 29 January 1983.[10][11] He is reportedly the last person who was hanged before the death penalty was abolished in Turkey.
There were many demonstrations by Armenians to protest the sentencing of Ekmekjian in Turkey. The Armenian poet Silva Kaputikyan wrote a poem titled "Nightly Requiem" (in Armenian «Գիշերային ռեքվիեմ» pronounced Gisherayin Rekviyem) in his memory. The poem was published in the Armenian literary periodical Garoun in November 1987.[12]
In 2013, Hampartsum Ekmekjian, the executed attacker's brother, presented a request to the Turkish authorities to allow the release of Levon's body as the family desired a Christian religious burial for him. In January 2016, the request was approved. The location of the corpse in Ankara's Cebeci cemetery was confirmed and the body was then exhumed and sent by air to France for reburial 33 years after his execution.[13]
Domestic response
- Political
President Kenan Evren issued a decree for the elimination of ASALA, while Prime Minister Bülend Ulusu condemned the attack.
- Apolitical
Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul condemned the attack with a declaration.
Artin Penik, a Turkish Armenian, fatally set himself on fire in protest at this attack on 10 August 1982 in Taksim Square, Istanbul.[14][15][16][17]
References
- Contemporary problems of international law, By Georg Schwarzenberger, Bin Cheng, Edward Duncan Brown, 1988, p. 27
- United States Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Significant Incidents of Political Violence Against Americans.
- "6 killed in attack in Ankara airport". The New York Times. August 8, 1982. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
- "Death Toll Rises to 9 in Turkish Airport Attack". 9 August 1982. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
A fatally injured American woman, identified by the State Department as Jean Bosworth of Falmouth, Mass., being aided Saturday after an attack by Armenian terrorists at Ankara's Esenboga Airport. A Turkish Government spokesman said Mrs. Bosworth was shot in the back as she fled. Her husband was wounded. A hospital spokesman said half of the 72 persons injured by one bomb set off by the terrorists and gunfire have been released. The attackers say they are avenging a massacre of Armenians by Turks in 1915
- Associated Press. Death Toll Climbs To 9 In Attack By Terrorists On Ankara Airport. St. Petersburg Times. August 9, 1982
- Time, August 23, 1982. A Cry for Bloody Vengeance
- BBC, September 9, 1982. Armenian Terrorist Sentenced to Death.
- Rand Corporation. Trends in International Terrorism, 1982 and 1983.
- BBC, September 13, 1982. Armenian Terrorist's Letter: Turks "Not Our Enemies".
- BBC, February 2, 1983. Armenian terrorist executed in Turkey.
- "Around the World – Turkey Executes 5, Including an Armenian - NYTimes.com". 30 January 1983. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
- Spurk Journal, #1-12, 2005, Beirut, p. 35.
- AFP report quoted on The Armenian Mirror-Spectator: Turkey Transfers to France Body of Executed ASALA Member
- Oran, Baskın (2006-12-17). "The Reconstruction of Armenian Identity in Turkey and the Weekly Agos (Interview with Hrant Dink)". Nouvelles d'Armenie. Archived from the original on 2012-02-20. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
- "Armenian Issue: Chronology". Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Archived from the original on May 23, 2009. Retrieved 2007-02-21.
- "He was an Armenian: Artin Penik". Turkish Journal. Retrieved 2007-02-21.
- Associated Press (August 16, 1982). "Armenian Dies Of Self-inflicted Burns". Observer-Reporter. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
