Envoy attack: Gunman sought

Press, 11 March 1983, Page 8

Envoy attack: Gunman sought

NZPA-Reuter Belgrade Yugoslav authorities have mounted a big search for one of two gunmen who seriously wounded the Turkish ambassador in a mid-morning ambush in Belgrade .yesterday.' Travellers reported special check-points at all road, air and railway exits out of the capital and the police stepped up patrol car activity. The authorities said that they were holding one of the attackers of the ambassador, Galip Balkar, who was in critical condition after undergoing surgery for wounds to the brain and body. A Yugoslav student died while attempting to prevent the attack, and a retired Yugoslav Army colonel was seriously wounded when caught in crossfire between a passing plainclothes policeman and the gunmen, said officials. A group calling itself Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide claimed responsibility for the action in messages to news agencies in

several capitals. The gunman held by the police was identified as Haroutiony Krikor Levonian, aged 23. The ambush was at an" intersection in central Belgrade as the Turkish envoy’s car stopped for a red light. The two gunmen opened fire at the car hitting the ambassador with two bullets — to the head and body — and then tried to escape through the busy streets. The Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide clandestine group is held responsible for at least 15 attacks on Turkish targets since 1975. They say that their campaign of violence is aimed at winning justice for the world’s four million Armenians, scattered across the globe from their traditional homeland which today forms part of eastern Turkey and areas acros> -he .border in the Soviet C and Iran. The comn— -i-s have recently mom-... attacks in Europe, Ausu a na and the United States.