Ahmet Benler was the son of

Özdemir Benler Özdemir is a Turkish given name for males meaning "pure iron." It may refer to: Given name * Özdemir Pasha (died 1561), Circassian Mamluk general for the Ottoman Empire * Özdemir Sabancı (1941–1996), Turkish businessman * Ozdemir Turan (bor ...

, the Turkish ambassador to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. He was assassinated on October 12, 1979, in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

. The responsibility for his assassination was claimed separately by

ASALA Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was a militant organization active between 1975 and the 1990s whose stated goal was "to compel the Turkish Government to acknowledge publicly its responsibility for the Armenian genocide i ...

and JCAG. Twenty-seven-year-old Ahmet Benler, the only son of the Turkish ambassador to the Netherlands, was a post-graduate student at

Delft University Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is r ...

. According to the police, on the way to the university, he stopped his

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post ...

for a traffic light when a gunman, who had been standing at a trolley stop, walked up and fired between four and six shots through the vehicle's closed window. Benler died on the spot.

Capture and trial of the alleged assassin

His alleged assassin

Mustafa Hassan Ammar Mustafa ( ar, مصطفى , Muṣṭafā) is one of the names of Prophet Muhammad, and the name means "chosen, selected, appointed, preferred", used as an Arabic given name and surname. Mustafa is a common name in the Muslim world. Given name Mou ...

, as his Lebanese passport stated, was returned to the Netherlands for the trial. However, he was discharged on grounds of insufficient evidence after a seven-hour hearing.EYLÜL 1980
For English readers
Ludington Daily News - Sep 10, 1981
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benler, Ahmet 1979 deaths Turkish people murdered abroad Year of birth missing Netherlands–Turkey relations 1979 in the Netherlands Terrorist attacks attributed to Armenian militant groups Terrorism in the Netherlands

Capture and trial of the alleged assassin

See also

References