For slain journalist İpekçi's friend, the pain remains

For slain journalist İpekçi's friend, the pain remains


Sunday, January 17, 2010

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Vasfiye Özkoçak, the first female reporter in Turkey and a close friend of Abdi İpekçi, the slain editor in chief of daily Milliyet, tells the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review about the day he was murdered by Mehmet Ali Ağca, who will be set free Monday. For Özkoçak, now 86 years old, the memory of that fateful day in 1979 is as alive as yesterday. 'I would shoot Ağca if I were not afraid of God,' she says

The year 1979 was a bloody one in Turkey, as the conflict between leftist and rightist political groups reached its peak a year before the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup. But one murder that will never be forgotten was the gunning down of Abdi İpekçi, the editor in chief of daily Milliyet, in Istanbul on Feb. 1, 1979.

İpekçi’s murderer, rightwing militant Mehmet Ali Ağca, would later make an international name for himself with his assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II. Although the late pope forgave Ağca, İpekçi’s family and friends never did.

“Ağca was not a normal person. It is impossible for [a single guy] to kill like this. Unfortunately, the connections behind the murder remain in the shadows,” Vasfiye Özkoçak told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. “I was a court reporter at the time and knew members of all the left- and right-wing [political] organizations.”

The first female reporter in Turkey and a close friend of İpekçi, Özkoçak said she met with Ağca years before the murder. “It is impossible for me to feel the pain that [the İpekçi] family feels, but in my heart the pain is deep,” she said. “I am 86 years old and if I were not afraid of God, I would shoot Ağca in the head.”

On the morning of the murder, İpekçi was at the newspaper. Daily meetings were held, stories were discussed – everything was as usual, except that İpekçi, who used to tour the newsroom and whose office door was never kept closed, was not seen that day. “There was a strange worry on his face. He was quiet,” Özkoçak said. “Before I left the office, I visited him and said goodbye. At that moment, I felt a pain impossible to describe.”

One hour later, Özkoçak was in her house and turned on the radio as she always did. Upon hearing the fateful news, she broke into tears and immediately rushed to the scene. “There was a big crowd. Everyone was crying,” she said. “I was trying to stop sobbing, my hands were shaking, but I was also trying to make the story ready. A person I loved most in the world was lying covered in blood, not breathing anymore. It was the most painful day of my professional life.”

A column on arms smuggling

İpekçi did not mention to her about any threats beforehand, Özkoçak said, but she had her own worries. “The leftists were trying to have him on their side, but he was keeping his impartiality. That impartiality made him a target.”

In his last column, İpekçi wrote about arms smuggling, Özkoçak noted. One theory holds that this article was what triggered the murder. İpekçi had learned that a member of a Masonic lodge, in which he himself was a member, had some connections with weapons smuggled to Turkey that ended up in the hands of various armed groups.

Özkoçak attended the murder trials and also talked to Ağca, who she said kept saying, “Sister Vasfiye, İpekçi was really a good guy, was he not?” She said she wanted to quit journalism several times after the murder, but could not bring herself to do it.

Asked what she thought about Ağca’s release Monday, Özkoçak broke into tears. “I do not believe in justice,” she said. “An innocent person died, his family has been left in pain for years. This is a great unfairness.”