Türkiye remembers counsellor assassinated in 1979 by Armenian terror group

WASHINGTON

The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Friday remembered counsellor Yilmaz Colpan, who was assassinated by an Armenian terror group in 1972.

"We remember with respect our martyr Yılmaz Çolpan, Tourism and Information Counsellor of the Turkish Embassy in Paris, assassinated in a heinous attack by the Armenian terrorist organization JCAG on 22 December 1979," the ministry said on X.

On Dec. 22, 1979, in front of Fouquet restaurant at the famous Champ Elysees, Colpan was shot by terrorists who eventually claimed responsibility for the attack on behalf of the Armenian Justice Commandos (JCAG) terror group.

The attack was just one of the assassinations of Turkish diplomats and family members around the world by Armenian terror groups ASALA and JCAG.

Since the 1970s, Armenian terror groups have killed 31 Turkish diplomats and their 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 Armenian diaspora rather than foreign partners, only targeted Türkiye because it believed that attacking other countries would damage the so-called "Armenian struggle."