Türkiye remembers citizens killed by terrorists in Portugal, Somalia

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye on Wednesday remembered the wife of a diplomat killed by an Armenian terror group in Portugal's capital Lisbon in the mid-1980s.

"We commemorate with respect our martyr Cahide Mihcioglu, spouse of Yurtsev Mihcioglu, Charge d’Affaires of the Turkish Embassy in Lisbon, assassinated by the Armenian terrorist organization ARA on July 27, 1983," the Foreign Ministry said on Twitter.

Over the decades, Armenian terror groups, including JCAG, the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), and the Armenian Revolutionary Army carried out many assassinations of Turkish diplomats and their families around the world.

According to data compiled by Anadolu Agency, a total of 77 people – 58 of them Turkish nationals, including 31 diplomats and members of their families – lost their lives in attacks carried out by these terrorist groups from 1973 to 1986.

The terror campaign started in 1973 when Türkiye’s Consul General in Los Angeles Mehmet Baydar and diplomat Bahadir Demir were assassinated in an attack by a terrorist named Gourgen Yanikian.

ASALA was the first Armenian terrorist group to launch a campaign against Türkiye. It targeted not only 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 initially gained notoriety after claiming responsibility with ASALA for the 1975 attack on Danis Tunaligil, Türkiye’s then-ambassador in Vienna.

The ARA is considered a continuation of the JCAG under a different name.

Türkiye also commemorated a police officer who was killed by the al-Shabaab terror group in Somalia in 2013.

"We commemorate with respect Sinan Yilmaz, police officer, fallen in the heinous terrorist attack targeting the Turkish Embassy in Mogadishu on July 27, 2013," the Foreign Ministry said on Twitter.

Al-Shabaab is behind hundreds of terror attacks over the years, including the 2017 bombing in Mogadishu that killed nearly 600 in the worst attack in the history of the Horn of Africa country.