Armenian Secret Army

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has condemned the parole of a convict in the U.S who murdered a Turkish diplomat in the 1980s. 

A court in Los Angeles accepted on Dec. 14 a defense attorney's demand for the conditional release of the Armenian-origin convict, Hampig Sassounian, who killed Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan in Los Angeles on Jan. 28, 1982. 

Turkey has announced a decision to return its ambassador to the Vatican, Mehmet Paçac?, nearly 10 months after withdrawing him in protest at Pope Francis' description of the killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I as "the first genocide of the 20th century."

The following is a list of the worst bomb attacks in Turkey since 1982:  

August 7, 1982: A bomb at Ankara's Esenbo?a Airport followed by a gun battle leaves 11 dead and 63 injured. The attack is claimed by the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA).

The body of Levon Ekmekjian, a member of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) who was executed in Turkey in 1983, has been taken to France following an appeal from his family.

Turkey was marking Sunday the anniversary of the Great Victory with ceremonies, limited to a presidential reception and commemorative events. With a Prime Ministry order, all festivities were banned. Why? Because of the national pain over the loss of beloved sons to terrorism related violence?

The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was an Armenian terrorist organization that operated from 1975 until the early 1990s. It conducted a series of assassinations against Turks throughout the 1970 and 1980s, killing 46 and injuring 299 people. Some 42 of the assassinated were Turkish diplomats.