Colonel Atilla Altikat was the Turkish military attaché to Ottawa, Canada, who was assassinated in 1982. The Armenian terrorist group, Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide, claimed responsibility for the attack.[1] The act was forcefully condemned by the Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau.[2]
Before being assigned to Ottawa in 1981, Altikat had been an officer in the Turkish air force. He was married and had two teenage children. Altikat was killed on his way to work at around 9:00 a.m. on August 23, 1982. When his car stopped for a red light on the Ottawa River Parkway at Island Park Drive, a car stopped nearby, a terrorist got out and fired nine shots from a 9 mm Browning handgun through the passenger window of the car, killing the diplomat instantly.[3]
The attack was one in a series of attacks on Turkish diplomats around the world. On April 8, 1982, the Turkish Commercial Counselor in Ottawa, Kani Güngör, had been seriously injured in a failed assassination attempt. Two years later, a group of Armenian terrorists attacked the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa, killing a Canadian security guard and seriously injuring the ambassador. While those responsible for the other two attacks were caught and prosecuted, the killing of Altikat remains unsolved, despite the offer of a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.[1]