From the Archives,1980:Political murder in a quiet Sydney street

As police examine new evidence in connection to the assassination of Turkish Consul-General Sarik Ariyak,we revisit the day he and his bodyguard were brutally slain outside his Dover Heights home.

First published inThe Sydney Morning Herald on December 18,1980

Police check for foreign'hit men'

The killers of the Turkish Consul-General and his bodyguard at Dover Heights yesterday may have been special"hit"men flown into Australia to carry out the assassination,police believe.

Detectives last night began checking overseas arrival lists at airports throughout the country.

Mr Ariyak with his wife Demet.

Mr Ariyak with his wife Demet.Barry James Gilmour

The Consul-General,Mr Sarik Ariyak,50,and Mr Engin Sever,28,were shot dead in their cars in what police described as a"carefully planned and professional"murder.

As Mr Ariyak and Mr Sever were leaving the Ariyaks'brick home in quiet,suburban Portland Street,the assassins struck.

They were on a motorcycle,and both wore full-face motorcycle helmets. While one kept the motorcycle going,the other leaped off the pillion seat and fired about a dozen shots from a machine pistol at the two men,sitting in separate cars.

The murders done,the gunman got back on the pillion seat and the two men rode off.

Mrs Ariyak had been watching,stunned,from the driveway of her home.

Almost immediately after the killing,a woman caller telephoned the Sydney Sun.

Speaking in a heavily accented voice she said:"I have been told to give you this message.

A police officer stands guard over slain consular bodyguard Engin Sever's car on December 17,1980

A police officer stands guard over slain consular bodyguard Engin Sever's car on December 17,1980Peter John Moxham;Alan Gilbert Purcell

"I am speaking on behalf of the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide.

"The attacks are in the retaliation for the injustice done to the Armenians by Turkey in 1915.

"We are the authors of the abomination act.

"We have no connection at all with the so-called Armenian Secret Army.

"Turks and Turkish institutions are our targets."

Police last night were treating the call seriously and began interviewing dozens of people in the Turkish and Armenian communities in Sydney.

A police spokesman said Special Branch detectives were"familiar"with the terrorist group.

International police,who were alerted to the assassination by Australian authorities,have supplied additional information about the activities of the terrorist group and scores of anti-Turkish groups have been investigated.

Scientific Squad detectives were conducting forensic tests on two motorcycles located in the Bondi area last night.

Graphic:the assassination of Turkish Consul-General Sarik Ariyak,from the SMH December 18,1980.

Graphic:the assassination of Turkish Consul-General Sarik Ariyak,from the SMH December 18,1980.Staff

Detectives went to an address in Birrell Street,Bondi,at 9pm following information that the motorcycle used by the murderers was parked outside a house.

The killings are at least the eleventh violent in the world since 1973 involving Turkish diplomats and their families in which Armenian groups claimed responsibility.

An estimated 15,000 Armenians live in Australia,with about 900 of the community in Sydney.

The Armenian people are a distinct ethnic group who before World War I lived inside the Ottoman Empire in a region straddling modern Turkey,Iran and the Soviet Union.

In 1915,as the Gallipoli campaign drew to a close,there were wide-spread massacres of the Armenian population carried out by the Turks,followed by mass deportations.

In Sydney,a team of about 30 detectives under Detective-Inspector Gordon Beardmore,of Maroubra district,and Detective-Sergeant Clive MacLachlin of the CIB Homicide Squad were interviewing witnesses and residents.

As the Australian Government took immediate measures to increase security at official Turkish offices in Canberra and around Australia,the Minister for Foreign Affairs,Mr Street,said every resource available to the Government would be used in the hunt for the assassins.

The Turkish Embassy described the assassination as an outrage against the international community. A spokesman said it was"an unspeakable violation of international rules and elementary morality."

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