Colonel Atilla Altikat (1937-1982)

Armenian gunmen attack and kill Turkish military attaché, Colonel Atilla Altikat, in Ottawa, Canada. When his car stops at a red light on Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, a passenger from a nearby vehicle gets out and fires nine shots from a 9mm Browning handgun through the passenger side window of the car, killing Altikat. Armenian terrorist group JCAG claim responsibility.

Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau condemned the attack: “It is a despicable and cowardly crime that no words can too strongly indict. The deed demands that we strengthen our resolve to end the terrorist blight from which it seems no country is immune.”

The attack was one in a series of terrorist 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 killer of Altikat remains at large.

ATAA condemns these acts of violence against innocent individuals and remembers these tragedies with great sorrow and deliberation to bring the perpetrators and their supporters to justice.