Turkish victims of 1978 Armenian terrorist attack remembered in Madrid

By Senhan Bolelli

MADRID (AA) — The assassinated wife of a retired Turkish ambassador was remembered on Friday in an event in Spain marking the 45th anniversary of her death at the hands of an Armenian terrorist group.

The commemoration event took place in Madrid, on Monte Esquinza street, where the attack in which JCAG terrorists killed Necla Kuneralp on June 2, 1978 took place.

Kuneralp, the wife of Türkiye's Ambassador to Spain Zeki Kuneralp, was assassinated along with her brother, retired Ambassador Besir Balcioglu, and the driver of her diplomatic vehicle, Antonio Torres.

It was just one of many assassinations of Turkish diplomats and family members around the world by Armenian terror groups ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) and JCAG (Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide).

Azerbaijani and Pakistani also attended the event, where the Turkish Embassy’s Charge d'Affaires Ayse Zeybek said in an address that Armenian terror attacks killed over 30 Turkish diplomats, public officials serving abroad and their families since 1970s.

Zeybek also underlined that Türkiye and Spain are two friendly nations that have both suffered due to terrorism.

"We commemorate with respect our martyrs retired Ambassador Besir Balcioglu, and Necla Kuneralp, the spouse of Ambassador Zeki Kuneralp, assassinated by the Armenian terrorist organization JCAG in Madrid on 2 June 1978," Türkiye's Foreign Ministry said earlier on Friday.

ASALA, founded in 1975, was the first Armenian terror group to wage war against Türkiye, and the JCAG was founded the same year in Beirut.

ASALA not only targeted Türkiye but also other countries and became infamous for a 1975 bomb attack on the Beirut office of the World Council of Churches.

The JCAG, which claimed that it only got support from the Armenia diaspora rather than foreign partners, only targeted Türkiye because it believed that attacking other countries would damage the so-called "Armenian struggle."