On May 17, 1971, Efraim Elrom, the Israeli

consul-general A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

was kidnapped and murdered by the

People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey People's, branded as ''People's ViennaLine'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH'', is an Austro-Swiss airline headquartered in Vienna, Austria. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights mainly from its base at St. ...

Background

The 1970s were a turbulent time in Turkish history. Until

martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...

was imposed in Istanbul and Ankara on April 26, 1971, left-wing extremists had been responsible for two kidnappings of American servicemen as well as two abductions of wealthy Turks. They had also robbed several banks and bombed numerous businesses and schools. Elrom's abduction broke period of relative inactivity on the part of the leftist militants.

Victim

Efraim Elrom (né Hofstaedter) was born in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in 1911. In 1969, he joined the Israeli foreign service and adopted a Hebrew name as required. He was assistant commander of a special interrogation unit set up immediately after

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ;"Eichmann"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 19 March 1906 – 1 Ju ...

's capture by Israeli agents in Argentina in 1960. He retired from the police force after 27 years. He left behind a widow, Elsa Elrom, but no children.

Death

On Monday, May 17, 1971, Elrom, the then-Israeli consul-general was abducted by militants of the People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey. The Marxist–Leninist militant group kidnapped the diplomat when he returned to his apartment for lunch, striking him after he fought back, before carrying him wrapped in a sheet to a waiting car. Elrom's abductors demanded the release of imprisoned revolutionary militants in exchange for his release. The Turkish government refused this request and launched a mass arrest of prominent leftists. A subsequent curfew and the house-to-house search of Istanbul hastened the murder of Elrom, whose body was found in an apartment in the

Nişantaşı Nişantaşı is a residential quarter in the Şişli district on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey. Nişantaşı quarter has four neighbourhoods: Teşvikiye, Maçka, Osmanbey and Pangaltı. The centre of the Nişantaşı quarter is at the ...

quarter of Istanbul five days later at 04:15 on Sunday May 23, 1971 with three bullet wounds in his head.

Perpetrators

Mahir Çayan Mahir Çayan (15 March 1946 – 30 March 1972) was a Turkish communist revolutionary and the leader of People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi''). He was a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary ...

Ulaş Bardakçı Ulaş Bardakçı (1947 – 19 February 1972) was a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary and a founding member of communist organisation People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey. Early life and education He was born Rasih Ulaş Bardakçı in a vil ...

, and Hüseyin Cevahir were identified as the abductors. The People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey, a group linked with the Marxist Palestinian guerrilla group

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

, claimed responsibility for the abduction. The group first came to attention on March 4 when it kidnapped four American servicemen in Ankara. Palestinian guerrilla propaganda was frequently confiscated from Turkish leftists, and many militants received guerrilla training in Arab countries, particularly in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Aftermath

The Turkish government and military cracked down on the entire radical left in Turkey, with the country seeing mass arrests. Israeli-Turkish relations became strained as Israeli authorities felt Turkish government did not do everything possible to have Elrom rescued.

References