Mehmet Ali Ağca (born January 9, 1958) is a Turkish assassin, who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981. After serving 19 years of incarceration in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he is serving another life sentence for the murder of Abdi İpekçi, a left-wing journalist, in 1979. Ağca has described himself as a mercenary with no political orientation, although he is known to have been a member of the Turkish ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves organization.

Ağca was born in 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 Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine paid for by the Bulgarian government, although this has been questioned.