Türkiye remembers 1978 martyrdom of envoy’s wife

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Friday commemorated the assassination of the wife of retired Turkish Ambassador in Spain Zeki Kuneralp.

"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," the ministry said on Twitter.

On June 2, 1978, Kuneralp was assassinated in Madrid, along with her brother, retired Ambassador Balcioglu, and driver of her diplomatic vehicle Antonio Torres.

The attack was just one of the 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).

Since the 1970s, Armenian terror groups have killed 31 Turkish diplomats and family members.

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."