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The assassination of a Turkish military attache in Ottawa...

By United Press Canada

The assassination of a Turkish military attache in Ottawa Friday marked the 23rd killing worldwide of a Turkish diplomat or family member by Armenian terrorists since 1973.

Col. Atilla Altikat, 45, died in a hail of gunfire at an intersection in the fashionable 'embassy row' district of Ottawa. The gunman drove up beside the limousine, fired a dozen shots and fled on foot, police said.

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For Canada, marked as one of the western nations where Armenian terrorists would concentrate their systematic killing spree, it was the second shooting of a Turkish diplomat in five months.

And in May, three Armenians were arrested in Chicago on charges they tried to bomb an Air Canada building after the arrests of four Armenians in Toronto. The preliminary hearing for the four on charges of extortion began Friday.

The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia claimed responsibility for the April 8 shooting of Kani Gungor, a commercial attache to the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa. He remains in hospital with his wounds.

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At the time, a man who identified himself as a spokesman for ASALA said at a news conference the shooting of Gungor was intended to force Turkish withdrawal from territory claimed as Armenian homeland.

Out of 24 attacks on Turkish diplomats worldwide since 1973, Gungor was the only one to survive.

Recently, the attacks have become more indiscriminate, with nine people killed and 74 wounded Aug. 4 in a shootout involving ASALA at the Ankara International Airport.

A group calling itself the 'Justice Commandos for Armenian Genocide,' formed in 1975, claimed responsibility for the assassinatin of Altikat. They also claimed responsibility for the Jan. 28 killing of a Turkish diplomat in Los Angeles in a style identical to the Ottawa murder.

Armenia is now divided between Turkey, the Soviet Union and Iran but there are large concentrations of Armenian exiles in Lebanon and United States and an estimated 13,000 Armenians living in Toronto alone.

The string of slayings began in 1973 when an elderly Armenian gunned down Turkey's Los Angeles consul and consul general in Santa Barbara, Calif. Slaying incidents since then include:

1975: Turkish charge d'affaires in Beirut, Lebanon, shot dead while playing pinball.

June 1975: Turkish ambassador to Vatican shot dead outside his house in Rome; Justice Commandos for Armenian Genocide claim responsibility.

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Oct. 22, 1975: Turkish ambassador to Austria shot dead.

Oct 24, 1975: Turkish ambassador to France shot dead; Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia claimed responsibility for both.

(Oct. 3, 1979: Armenians Suzi Masteredjian, 27, an American citizen, and Alex Yenekomochian, 25, a Lebanese national, arrested in Geneva. In February 1981 they were given suspended sentences and expelled for illegally seeking to finance the Secret Army. After their arrest, bomb attacks followed in Geneva, Rome, Paris and London.)

Oct 12, 1979: Son of Turkish ambassador to the Netherlands shot dead; Justice Commandos claim responsibility.

Dec 22, 1979: Turkish press attache in Paris shot dead; Justice Commandos claim Armenian Secret Army killed him.

(Dec. 15, 1980: Armenian group plants two bombs outside French tourist office in London; both devices defused.)

Dec. 17, 1980: Sydney, Australia. Turkish Consul-General Sarik Ariyak and his bodyguard shot dead in a motorcycle ambush. Killings claimed by the Justice Commandos.

March 4, 1981: Turkish labor counsellor Resat Morali shot dead and religious attache Tecelli Ari fatally wounded in France by gunmen claiming to be members of Secret Army.

April 1981: Turkish diplomat Cavit Demir shot in Copenhagen. He survived.

June 9, 1981: Turkish diplomat Mehmet Savas Erguz, 39, shot and killed after leaving the Turkish Consulate in Geneva, Switzerland. Police arrested an Armenian suspect.

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(Nov, 11, 1981: Armenian militant Dmitriu Giorgiu, suspected of leading the Secret Army, arrested in Paris. The Secret Army subsequently claimed responsibility for a series of incidents including bomb attacks in Paris and in Beirut, headquarters of the Armenian underground organization.)

1982:

Jan. 28, 1982: Justice Commandos of Armenian Genocide claim reponsibility for fatal ambush shooting of Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan in his car in Los Angeles. Police arrested Hampig Sassounian, 19, a citizen of Lebanon who immigrated to U.S. in 1977.

Arikan was determined to be the 21st Turkish diplomat or family member slain by Armenian terrorists internationally since 1973. (April 8, 1982: A commercial attache at Turkish Embassy in Ottawa, Kani Gungor, was shot and wounded in the embassy garage. No one claimed responsibility but the embassy blamed Armenian terrorists.)

May 4, 1982: Orhan Gunduz, honorary Turkish consul general to New England, shot dead in his car in Boston suburb of Somerville by two men posed as joggers. Justice Commandos of Armenian Genocide claim responsibility.

Aug. 7, 1982: Nine people killed and 74 wounded by a bomb and machine-gun shootout at Ankara International Airport by the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia -- its first indiscriminate attack resulting in fatalities. Security forces shot and killed one of the gunmen. A caller said the attack was meant to pressure Canada and Western European governments for release of Armenian gunmen arrested after a worldwide total of 22 assassinations of Turkish diplomats or members of their family or staffs.

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Aug. 27, 1982: Col.

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