OTTAWA -- Kemalettin Kani Gungor, the Turkish diplomat gunned down at his home in an assassination attempt, showed signs of improvement Friday and has been taken off the critical list, Turkish Ambassador to Canada Turgut Sunalp said.
'He's getting better,' Sunalp said of his 50-year-old friend and the Turkish Embassy's commercial counsellor.
Riverside Hospital officials said the veteran diplomat underwent three hours of emergency surgery to extract a bullet that struck him in the shoulder and passed through his lungs.
Credit for the assassination attempt has been claimed by a group called the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, or ASALA. Anonymous telephone callers claiming to be ASALA members called United Press International in Beirut and took responsibility for the attack.
Other claims surfaced in Toronto and Athens, Sunalp said.
Armenian terrorist groups have been blamed for the deaths of 21 Turkish diplomats and members of their families around the world during the past decade. The attacks usually occur in April, the month in which the Ottoman Turks slaughtered some 1.5 Armenians in 1915.
The RCMP have moved to tighten security around the Turkish embassy in Ottawa and its staff for fear of further attacks, the ambassador said.
'There were some serious complications before (Gungor's) operation. The doctors had to make a hole under his chin to help him breathe. There were also the complications of internal bleeding.
'What is encouraging is that yesterday (Thursday) the doctors gave him no chances to survive. Now they are saying that he will recover. He can now respond.'
Ottawa police said they were summoned to Gungor's home by a tow truck driver who was called to the garage. They said there were no witnesses to the shooting and they had few clues and no suspects.
Both Gungor's wife and two daughters were at home at the time of the shooting but saw or heard nothing, police said, adding that they were still continuing their search for two persons responsible for the attempt.
Sunalp said ASALA has vowed to carry out more acts of violence if the Armenian community in Canada is persecuted.
'ASALA claims responsibility for the attack against the Commercial Attache of the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa, the agent Kemalettin Kani Gungor,' a woman speaking English told the UPI bureau in Beirut.
The anonymous caller said, 'We warn the Canadian authorities that any attempt to persecute the Armenian community in Canada will not pass without punishment.'