Five killed in airport attack

Press, 9 August 1982, Page 1

Five killed in airport attack

NZPA-Reuter Ankara A guerrilla attack on Ankara Airport yesterday (New Zealand time) in which at least five people died has led to fears that Armenian nationalists are switching their vengeance campaign inside the country from Turkish targets abroad. Three policemen and an American woman , were killed when a small guerrilla squad seized 15 hostages after throwing bombs into the airport terminal and spraying waiting passengers with sub-machine-gun fire, martial law authorities announced.

A guerrilla was shot dead when the police fired back, they said. ' Another was wounded, a third suspected guerrilla was captured, and 72 people were injured, said the authorities.

Other official sources said seven people apart from the guerrillas had died, including the American woman and a West German. The Beirut-based Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia claimed.responsibility for the attack, the first big assault in Turkey by Armenian guerrillas. A.S.A.L.A. is the most prominent of several Armenian groups which have assassinated more than 20 Turks, mostly diplomats to avenge what-they call the massacre of 1.5 million of their people in eastern Tur-

key during World War I.

The latest attack was in Rotterdam on July 21, when the Turkish Consul-General escaped unhurt from an ambush on his car..

The attacks have angered successive Turkish Governments, which deny the Armenians’ massacre claims.

The bloody two-hour attack on the airport, 30km north of the capital/raised speculation that a new campaign inside Turkey was beginning, although diplomats called it a desperate, suicide mission which appeared poorly organised. . The A.S.A.L.A. statement in Beirut said the organisation gave the United States, Canada, France, Britain, Switzerland, and Sweden, seven days in which to release 85 Armenians held on what it said were false charges of assisting A.S.A.L.A' and the Armenian cause.

Security officials discounted reports that the guerrillas arrived at the airport on a Lufthansa flight from West Germany and said preliminary investigations indicated that they came by road. Martial law authorities said the American woman was shot in the back by the attackers- as she tried to escape.

The daily newspaper, “Milliyet,” named her as Jean Gifford and the West German man as Herbert Roso-

novski. It gave no further details.

The airport was. back to normal by late evening, the semi-official Anatolian news agency reported. A customs official, one of the 72 injured, described the scenes of chaos when the guerrillas struck. “A number of people .were firing.” he said. “The passengers broke windows and ran towards the tarmac. It was then that I was shot.”

The guerrillas herded the hostages into a restaurant; After a burst of firing from inside, hostages suddenly began to emerge, many of them sobbing and limping from wounds. State television showed the crumpled, bullet-riddled body of the dead guerrilla sprawled under restaurant tables.

The Turkish Enibassy in Washington, condemned the attack as a “ruthless and inhumane crime” that would not go unpunished. The statement said Turkish security forces reacted “swiftly and with force” during the three-hour rampage. Speaking for the United States State Department, Ms Carolyn Johnson, said, “The United States Government deplores this outrageous incident involving indiscriminate killing and maiming. This is another savage reminder of the need to take firm action against such unlawful and despicable acts.”