Athens: Turkish embassy holds ceremony for martyrs

By Furkan Naci Top

ATHENS (AA) – The Turkish embassy in the Greek capital Athens on Thursday opened a memorial corner in the embassy for martyred diplomats and their families.

During the ceremony for the opening of the corner, pictures of the martyred, including those of administrative Attaché Galip Ozmen, his daughter Neslihan Ozmen, Haluk Sipahioglu, a counselor at the Turkish Embassy in Athens, and Turkish Press Attaché Cetin Gorgu, were exhibited.

Embassy Counsellor Mehmet Sekerci, Athens-Piraeus Consul General Oya Yazar, lawmaker Ilhan Ahmet, military attachés, members of the diplomatic mission and citizens attended the opening ceremony.

Speaking at the ceremony, Sekerci said that Greece -- like Turkey -- was a country that had lost many people to terrorist attacks.

"Our friends in Athens and our 36 other martyrs who were assassinated in various parts of the world have never been forgotten. Today they are not here with us but their memories will always be with us,” he said.

The diplomats and their family members were martyred during a number of terrorist attacks carried out by the November 17 terror group in Greece.

While Galip Ozmen was assassinated with his 14-year-old daughter Neslihan on July 31, 1980 in Athens by the Armenian terrorist group ASALA, November 17 staged various attacks between 1991 and 1994, targeting Turkish diplomats in Athens.

Turkish Press Attaché Cetin Gorgu was killed in 1991 while Omer Haluk Sipahioglu, a counsellor at the Turkish Embassy in Athens, was gunned down in front of his home in 1994.

Former Ambassador Deniz Bolukbasi -- who died early Wednesday --, Nilgun Kececi, the wife of a Turkish vice-consul, and driver Adil Yildirim were also wounded in separate attacks reportedly carried out by the same group.

The November 17 terror group was active in Greece between 1975 and 2002. It is considered responsible for the assassination of 23 people in a total of 103 attacks, which particularly targeted U.S., British, Turkish, and Greek nationals.