[A-List] Turkey: Historian Killed Outside Home

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This may be an important development. The Turkish site of MSNBC
reports this as the assassination that shook Turkey. Just saw
this so I am sending it without any comment. I need to learn more
before I can say anything. Michael Pollak was right: if you are
from my part of the world, you find it naive to disregard the
possibility of conspiracies.

Sabri

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Turkish Historian Killed Outside Home

Thursday December 19, 2002 4:30 AM


ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A Turkish historian who spoke out against
Islamic groups was shot and killed outside his home Wednesday,
news reports said.

Necip Hablemitoglu, 48, a history lecturer at Ankara University,
was shot in the head twice as he left his car and walked toward
his home, private NTV television reported. He died instantly.

Police cordoned off the street in the high-income residential
district and were looking for the attacker or attackers who fled
the scene.

The motive for the killing was under investigation. But NTV said
Hablemitoglu had reported receiving several death threats before
the attack.

Suspected Islamic militants have carried out attacks on
pro-secular intellectuals in the past.

In 1999, Ahmet Taner Kislali, a journalist, political science
professor and former culture minister who frequently condemned
radical Islam in Turkey was killed in a car bomb attack outside
his home. Pro-secular investigative journalist Ugur Mumcu was
killed by a car bomb in 1993.

Hablemitoglu taught classes on the reforms of Kemal Ataturk, the
founder of modern, secular Turkey.

He was the author of a book which accused Turkey-based German
foundations of working to undermine Turkish interests. The
representatives of the foundations are scheduled to stand trial
later this month on charges of conspiring against Turkey.

Article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2256620,00.ht
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