Who is Ugur Mumcu? Why Was He Killed?

Who is Ugur Mumcu? Why Was He Killed?

It has been 30 years since investigative journalist Ugur Mumcu lost his life in a bomb attack. The secret behind the death of investigative journalist Mumcu, who lost her life in a bomb attack in front of her house in Ankara, has still not been clarified. Mumcu, in his article titled “The Bottomless Pit”, written some time before the assassination, said, “The Middle East is a dark abyss where imperialism roams, terrorist organizations and various intelligence agencies play bloody and dirty games. Murders come one after another. A dark and bottomless pit. Why does he kill? It is not possible to find the answers to these questions right away. After years, everything will become clear. This is part of the job!” the words used.

Mumcu, who graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Law in 1965, received the “Yunus Nadi Award” for his article titled “Turkish Socialism” published in Cumhuriyet newspaper during his student years.

Working as an assistant to Tahsin Bekir Balta, Professor of Administrative Law at Ankara University Faculty of Law, Mumcu wrote articles for Milliyet Newspaper.

Mumcu was arrested on charges of “insulting the army” and “providing the dominance of one social class over other social classes” with the words “the army must be vigilant” in an article he published on March 12, 1971. .

Mumcu, who has been imprisoned in Mamak Military Prison for nearly a year with many intellectuals and was sentenced to 7 years in prison in the case in which he was tried, was released after the decision was overturned by the Supreme Court.

Mumcu, who went to the army after his release, completed his military service as a “reserve officer”, in his own words, “inappropriate infantry”.

Mumcu, who was educated in Tuzla Infantry School, was dismissed by the school administration on the charge of “bad behavior and thought” in 1973 and sent to Ağrı Patnos.

Mumcu, who left his job at the university after completing his military service, started his professional journalism on February 25, 1974 with an article titled “Anarchist!..” in the newspaper Yeni Ortam.

Mumcu, who both voiced the problems and brought up illegal and unlawful practices in his columns, also made a splash with the books he wrote.

“ADAPTATION OF INTERESTED BABY TO THE THEATER”

Mumcu married Güldal Homan on 19 July 1976 and had a son (Özgür) and a daughter (Özge).

The master journalist’s book ‘The Inconvenient Infantryman’, published in 1977, was adapted for the theater and was staged hundreds of times at the Ankara Art Theatre.

Mumcu published the book “Arms Smuggling and Terrorism” in 1981 to reveal the relationship between terrorism and arms smuggling and to create public opinion in this direction.

Pope II. Researching Mehmet Ali Ağca and his connections regarding the armed attack against Jean Paul, Mumcu published the books “Rabıta” and “September 12” and “Kurdish-Islamic Uprising 1919-1925” which is considered as one of them. It is one of his most important studies. It was published in 1991.

“The secret of the murders was not revealed”

Ugur Mumcu, in his article titled “Bottomless Pit”, which he wrote in the Cumhuriyet newspaper on September 27, 1992, after the murder of writer Musa Anter, said, “The Middle East is a dark abyss where imperialism and terrorist organizations roam. And various intelligence agencies are playing bloody and dirty games.

Murders follow each other in this dark and bottomless pit. It is not known ‘whose hand is in whose pocket’ in the Middle East. Who is killing whom and why? It is not possible to find the answers to these questions all at once. Events develop years later. It’s part of it!”

Ugur Mumcu died on January 24, 1993, when a bomb placed in his car exploded. Although organizations such as IBDA-C and Hezbollah took the responsibility for the assassination, the smoke curtain on the murder could not be lifted even after 30 years.

The first cases of the assassination that shook Turkey began 7 years after Ugur Mumcu’s death. With the Ugur Mumcu assassination, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Taner Kislali, Prof. Dr. Muammer Aksoy and Assoc. The name of the case involving the Bahriye Üçok murders was “Umut”.

The case at the Ankara 11th High Criminal Court could not fully reveal the secret behind the murders.

PENALTY GIVEN

After the decision of the first-instance court was overturned by the Supreme Court, 3 defendants were sentenced to “establishing and leading an illegal Tevhid-Salam and Quds Army organization”, and 5 defendants were sentenced to different prison sentences. prison sentence for being a member of an organization. same organization.

In this context, the defendants Mehmet Ali Tekin, Hasan Kılıç and Ekrem Baytap were sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in prison for “establishing and leading an armed criminal organization”.

Defendants Abdulhamit Çelik, Fatih Aydın, Yusuf Karakuş, Mehmet Şahin and Recep Aydın were sentenced to 6 years and 3 months in prison each for “membership of an armed criminal organization”.

The Constitutional Court ordered the retrial of the defendants Recep Aydın, Mehmet Ali Tekin, Hasan Kılıç, Mehmet Şahin and Yusuf Karakuş on the grounds that the legislation did not allow them to meet with a lawyer while in detention.