Turkish President Escapes Gunman’s Assassination Bid
A man upset about Turkey’s military cooperation with Israel pointed a gun at President Suleyman Demirel on Saturday, but bodyguards tackled him and Demirel escaped unharmed.
A Turkish journalist and a policeman were slightly injured when the gun went off during the scuffle.
The gunman said he was angry at the president over a treaty signed in February allowing Israeli jets to train in Turkish air space, Interior Minister Ulku Guney told a news conference in Ankara, the capital.
Many Muslims in Turkey and elsewhere were angered by the treaty. They want officially secular Turkey to abandon relations with Israel and enact strict Islamic law.
The assassination attempt occurred at a groundbreaking ceremony for a shopping mall in Izmit, 60 miles east of Istanbul.
An undercover guard saw a man pointing a gun at Demirel and grabbed the assailant’s hand, the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported. Other guards jumped on the gunman.
The gunman, Ibrahim Gumrukcuoglu, claimed that he had not intended to harm the president, only to demonstrate his opposition to the military treaty, Guney said.
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