Türkiye commemorates diplomat gunned down in Brussels in 1983

By Selen Temizer

BRUSSELS (AA) - Türkiye on Thursday commemorated a diplomat who was gunned down by an Armenian terrorist on the street outside his home in Brussels in 1983.

Turkish diplomats attended a ceremony on Avenue Franklin Roosevelt in Brussels, where the terror attack killed Dursun Aksoy.

Ambassador to Belgium Hasan Ulusoy said that Türkiye is the country that lost the most diplomats due to terrorism and many diplomats and their relatives were killed in attacks by Armenian terrorist organizations.

Ulusoy noted it is regrettable that the perpetrators went unpunished.

He also stressed the importance of cooperation against terrorism at the international level so terror attacks do not occur in the future.

Aksoy was born in 1944 in the village of Islamkoy in the southwestern Turkish province of Isparta.

In November 1976, he joined the Foreign Ministry and three years later was appointed to the Embassy in Brussels as an administrative attache.

The father of three was scheduled to return to Türkiye in October 1983 -- the year his youngest son turned 4.

On July 14, 1983, at 10.30 a.m. local time (0830GMT), as he was about to start his car outside his home, Aksoy was shot twice, in the neck and chest, by an Armenian terrorist.

The 39-year-old Turkish diplomat died at the scene.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan in Istanbul