Mehmet Ali Agca
Encyclopedia
Mehmet Ali Ağca (ˈaːdʒa; born January 9, 1958) is a Turkish assassin
who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi
on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II
on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison. After serving 19 years of imprisonment in Italy
, he was deported to Turkey
, where he served a ten-year sentence. He was released on January 18, 2010. Ağca has described himself as a mercenary with no political orientation, although he is known to have been a member of the Turkish ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves
organization.
district, Malatya Province
in Turkey. As a youth, he became a petty criminal and a member of street gangs in his home town. He became a smuggler between Turkey and Bulgaria
.
He claims to have received two months of training in weaponry and terrorist tactics in Syria
as a member of the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
paid for by the Communist Bulgaria
n government, although this has been questioned.
, who were at the time destabilizing Turkey, which led to a military coup in 1980. It has been claimed ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves were being used by the CIA. For instance, according to Kendal Nezan
of the Kurdish Institute of Paris
, they were infiltrated and manipulated by Gladio "stay-behind
" networks, a NATO clandestine structure.
On February 1, 1979 in Istanbul, under orders from the Grey Wolves, he murdered Abdi İpekçi
, editor of a major Turkish newspaper
Milliyet
. He was caught due to an informant and was sentenced to life in prison. After serving six months, he escaped with the help of Abdullah Çatlı
, second-in-command of the Grey Wolves and a prominent Gladio operative, and fled to Bulgaria, which was a base of operation for the Turkish mafia. According to investigative journalist Lucy Komisar
, Mehmet Ali Ağca had worked with Abdullah Çatlı in this 1979 assassination, who "then reportedly helped organize Ağca's escape from an Istanbul military prison, and some have suggested Çatlı was even involved in the Pope's assassination attempt". According to Reuters
, Ağca had "escaped with suspected help from sympathizers in the security services". Lucy Komisar added that at the scene of the Mercedes-Benz crash where Çatlı died, he was found with a passport under the name of "Mehmet Özbay" — an alias also used by Mehmet Ali Ağca.
on May 10, 1981, coming by train from Milan
.
According to Ağca's later testimony, he met with three accomplices in Rome, one a fellow Turk and the other two Bulgarians. The operation was commanded by Zilo Vassilev, the Bulgarian military attaché
in Italy. He said that he was assigned this mission by Turkish mafioso Bekir Celenk in Bulgaria. Le Monde diplomatique
, however, has alleged that the assassination attempt was organized by Abdullah Çatlı
"in exchange for the sum of 3 million marks", paid by Bekir Celenk to the Grey Wolves.
According to Ağca, the plan was for him and the back-up gunman Oral Çelik to open fire in St. Peter's Square and escape to the Bulgarian embassy under the cover of the panic generated by a small explosion. On May 13 they sat in the square, writing postcards and waiting for the Pope to arrive. When the Pope passed them, Ağca fired several shots and wounded him, but was grabbed by spectators and Vatican security chief Camillo Cibin
and prevented from finishing the assassination or escaping. Four bullets hit John Paul II, two of them lodging in his lower intestine, the others hitting his left hand and right arm. Two bystanders were also hit. Çelik panicked and fled without setting off his bomb or opening fire. The Pope survived the assassination attempt.
in Italy for the assassination attempt. Following his shooting, Pope John Paul II asked people to "pray for my brother (Ağca), whom I have sincerely forgiven." Although Ağca had been quoted as saying that "to me [the Pope] was the incarnation of all that is capitalism", and had attempted to murder him, Ağca developed a friendship with the pontiff. In 1983, he and Ağca met and spoke privately at the prison where Ağca was being held. The Pope was also in touch with Ağca's family over the years, meeting his mother in 1987 and his brother a decade later. After serving almost 20 years of a life sentence in prison in Italy, Ağca was pardoned by the then Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
in June 2000 and deported to Turkey.
Following his extradition to Turkey, he was imprisoned for the 1979 murder of Abdi İpekçi
and for two bank raids carried out in the 1970s. Journalist Abdi İpekçi was killed on February 1, 1979. Ağca was arrested on June 25 and incarcerated in the Maltepe Military Prison. He fled to Bulgaria on 25 November and was sentenced to death in his absence. Ağca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 by benefiting from the Conditional Amnesty Law. This possibility granted to the ex-convict caused strong reactions. Both cases about Ağca were merged and tried before the Kadıköy 1st High Criminal Court. The single trial concerned the usurpation of Cengiz Aydos' taxi in 1979, robbing the Yıldırm jewelry store in Kızıltoprak on March 22, 1979 and stealing money from the Fruko soda storage on April 4, 1979.
On June 9, 1997, Air Malta Flight 830 was hijacked
by two men. After landing in Cologne
, the hijackers demanded the release of Ağca, who at the time was serving a life sentence in Italy for trying to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981. Ağca was not released and the hijackers surrendered.
On 18 January 2000, the judges decreed for a dismissal of proceedings due to the statute of limitation regarding the case filed for the jewelry store robbery and for "opposition to the Firearms Act" (law no. 6136). For usurpation and money theft Ağca was handed a 36 year prison sentence. Ağca's lawyers applied for the release of their client deriving benefit from law no. 4516 related to Parole and Postponement of Penalties in December 2000. Their request was rejected by the Kartal 1st High Criminal Court. The lawyers filed an appeal against this decision which was declined again. Ağca was sentenced to 10 years in prison for murder.
In early February 2005, during the Pope's illness, Ağca sent a letter to the Pope wishing him well and also warning him that the world would end soon. When the Pope died on April 2, 2005, Ağca's brother Adnan gave an interview in which he said that Agca and his entire family were grieving, and that the Pope had been a great friend to them. On April 5, 2005 CNN
stated that Ağca would want to visit the Pope's funeral on April 8, 2005. However, Turkish
authorities rejected his request to leave prison to attend.
Ağca was released on parole
on January 12, 2006. Mustafa Demirbağ, his lawyer, explained his release as a combination of amnesty and penal reform: an amnesty in 2000 deducted 10 years from his time, the court then deducted his 20 years in the Italian prison based on a new article in the penal code, and he was then eligible to be paroled based on good behaviour. However, a report from the French AFP news agency stated that "The Turkish judicial authorities still haven't explained exactly which legal resources he had access to", and former minister of Justice Hikmet Sami Türk, in government at the time of Ağca's extradition, claimed that, from a legal viewpoint, his liberation was a "serious mistake" at best, and that he should have not been freed before 2012. However, on January 20, 2006, the Turkish Supreme Court ruled that his time served in Italy could not be deducted from his Turkish sentence and he was returned to jail.
It was during his time in prison that he converted to Christianity
in 2007. He claimed to be the Messiah at his trial and has made many bizarre statements over the years, although it has never been clear whether he is mentally unstable or merely acting.
was criticized by the Muslim world
following the September 12, 2006 Regensburg lecture, Ali Ağca wrote a letter to the Pope from jail warning him to cancel his planned trip to Turkey
in November 2006. In the letter, which was published in leading Italian Rome-based daily la Repubblica
, he stated:
Despite Ağca's warning, Pope Benedict's visit to Turkey proceeded as scheduled without any incidents.
, Pope John Paul II's country of origin. Ağca has stated that upon his release he wants to visit Pope John Paul II's tomb and partner with Dan Brown
on writing a book.
Ağca was released from jail on January 18, 2010. He was transferred to a military hospital in order to assess if, at 52, he was still fit for compulsory military service. The military found him unfit for military service for having "antisocial personality disorder
". In a statement, he announced: "I will meet you in the next three days. In the name of God Almighty, I proclaim the end of the world in this century. All the world will be destroyed, every human being will die. I am not God, I am not son of God, I am Christ eternal."
's 2002 novel Red Rabbit
and Frederick Forsyth
's novel The Fourth Protocol
. He has also been mentioned in the book "The Third Revelation" by Ralph McInerny
as well as in the 1981 Greek play The Tape by Loula Anagnostaki, where the leading hero is recording a message to Ali Agca.
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi
Abdi Ipekçi
Abdi İpekçi was a Turkish journalist, intellectual and an activist for human rights. He was murdered while editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet.-Biography:...
on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison. After serving 19 years of imprisonment in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, he was deported to Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, where he served a ten-year sentence. He was released on January 18, 2010. Ağca has described himself as a mercenary with no political orientation, although he is known to have been a member of the Turkish ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves
Grey Wolves
The Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
organization.
Early life
Ağca was born in the HekimhanHekimhan
Hekimhan is a district of Malatya Province of Turkey. The mayor is Mehmet Sait Özoğlu . The district is located in Upper part of Euphrates in Eastern Anatolia. It is also located in the ancient silk road. The population of Hekimhan town and its villages has been going down since 1980s because of...
district, Malatya Province
Malatya Province
Malatya Province is a province of Turkey. It is part of a larger mountainous area. The capital of the province is Malatya , which has many residents. Malatya is famous for its apricots. The area of Malatya province is 12,313 km². Malatya Province has 740,643 inhabitants. The population was...
in Turkey. As a youth, he became a petty criminal and a member of street gangs in his home town. He became a smuggler between Turkey and Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
.
He claims to have received two months of training in weaponry and terrorist tactics in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
as a member of the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organisation founded in 1967. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization , the largest being Fatah...
paid for by the Communist Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n government, although this has been questioned.
Grey Wolves involvement
After training he went to work for the far-right Turkish Grey WolvesGrey Wolves
The Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
, who were at the time destabilizing Turkey, which led to a military coup in 1980. It has been claimed ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves were being used by the CIA. For instance, according to Kendal Nezan
Kendal Nezan
A nuclear physicist by profession, Dr. Kendal Nezan is president of the Kurdish Institute of Paris and a board member of the Washington Kurdish Institute....
of the Kurdish Institute of Paris
Kurdish Institute of Paris
Kurdish Institute of Paris , founded in February 1983, is an organization focused on Kurdish language and culture. It is one of the main Kurdish academic centers in Europe...
, they were infiltrated and manipulated by Gladio "stay-behind
Stay-behind
In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organisations in its own territory, for use in the event that the territory is overrun by an enemy. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement, or would act as spies from behind enemy lines...
" networks, a NATO clandestine structure.
On February 1, 1979 in Istanbul, under orders from the Grey Wolves, he murdered Abdi İpekçi
Abdi Ipekçi
Abdi İpekçi was a Turkish journalist, intellectual and an activist for human rights. He was murdered while editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet.-Biography:...
, editor of a major Turkish newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
Milliyet
Milliyet
Milliyet is a major Turkish daily newspaper founded in 1950.-History:Milliyet came to publishing life at the Nuri Akça press in Babıali, Istanbul as a daily private newspaper on 3 May 1950...
. He was caught due to an informant and was sentenced to life in prison. After serving six months, he escaped with the help of Abdullah Çatlı
Abdullah Çatli
Abdullah Çatlı was a Turkish convicted drug trafficker, and contract killer for the Counter-Guerrilla. He led the youth branch of the Nationalist Movement Party...
, second-in-command of the Grey Wolves and a prominent Gladio operative, and fled to Bulgaria, which was a base of operation for the Turkish mafia. According to investigative journalist Lucy Komisar
Lucy Komisar
Lucy Komisar is a New York City-based investigative journalist. She writes about offshore banking, corporate secrecy, international money laundering, and how they relate to corporate fraud; international corruption; the looting by dictators; financing of terrorism; international crime including...
, Mehmet Ali Ağca had worked with Abdullah Çatlı in this 1979 assassination, who "then reportedly helped organize Ağca's escape from an Istanbul military prison, and some have suggested Çatlı was even involved in the Pope's assassination attempt". According to Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
, Ağca had "escaped with suspected help from sympathizers in the security services". Lucy Komisar added that at the scene of the Mercedes-Benz crash where Çatlı died, he was found with a passport under the name of "Mehmet Özbay" — an alias also used by Mehmet Ali Ağca.
Assassination attempt on the Pope
Beginning in August 1980 Ağca began criss-crossing the Mediterranean region, changing passports and identities, perhaps to hide his trigger point of origin in Sofia, Bulgaria. He entered RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
on May 10, 1981, coming by train from Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
.
According to Ağca's later testimony, he met with three accomplices in Rome, one a fellow Turk and the other two Bulgarians. The operation was commanded by Zilo Vassilev, the Bulgarian military attaché
Military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
in Italy. He said that he was assigned this mission by Turkish mafioso Bekir Celenk in Bulgaria. Le Monde diplomatique
Le Monde diplomatique
Le Monde diplomatique is a monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first created mainly for a diplomatic audience as its name implies...
, however, has alleged that the assassination attempt was organized by Abdullah Çatlı
Abdullah Çatli
Abdullah Çatlı was a Turkish convicted drug trafficker, and contract killer for the Counter-Guerrilla. He led the youth branch of the Nationalist Movement Party...
"in exchange for the sum of 3 million marks", paid by Bekir Celenk to the Grey Wolves.
According to Ağca, the plan was for him and the back-up gunman Oral Çelik to open fire in St. Peter's Square and escape to the Bulgarian embassy under the cover of the panic generated by a small explosion. On May 13 they sat in the square, writing postcards and waiting for the Pope to arrive. When the Pope passed them, Ağca fired several shots and wounded him, but was grabbed by spectators and Vatican security chief Camillo Cibin
Camillo Cibin
Camillo Cibin was a Papal bodyguard and Inspector General of the Corpo della Gendarmeria, the security and police force of Vatican City. He retired in 2006 after 58 years of service in the security force and over forty years as its commander.Cibin was with Pope John Paul II when he was shot in St....
and prevented from finishing the assassination or escaping. Four bullets hit John Paul II, two of them lodging in his lower intestine, the others hitting his left hand and right arm. Two bystanders were also hit. Çelik panicked and fled without setting off his bomb or opening fire. The Pope survived the assassination attempt.
Prison time, release, and rearrest
Ağca was sentenced, in July 1981, to life imprisonmentLife imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
in Italy for the assassination attempt. Following his shooting, Pope John Paul II asked people to "pray for my brother (Ağca), whom I have sincerely forgiven." Although Ağca had been quoted as saying that "to me [the Pope] was the incarnation of all that is capitalism", and had attempted to murder him, Ağca developed a friendship with the pontiff. In 1983, he and Ağca met and spoke privately at the prison where Ağca was being held. The Pope was also in touch with Ağca's family over the years, meeting his mother in 1987 and his brother a decade later. After serving almost 20 years of a life sentence in prison in Italy, Ağca was pardoned by the then Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
dr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is an Italian politician and banker. He was the 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006...
in June 2000 and deported to Turkey.
Following his extradition to Turkey, he was imprisoned for the 1979 murder of Abdi İpekçi
Abdi Ipekçi
Abdi İpekçi was a Turkish journalist, intellectual and an activist for human rights. He was murdered while editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet.-Biography:...
and for two bank raids carried out in the 1970s. Journalist Abdi İpekçi was killed on February 1, 1979. Ağca was arrested on June 25 and incarcerated in the Maltepe Military Prison. He fled to Bulgaria on 25 November and was sentenced to death in his absence. Ağca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 by benefiting from the Conditional Amnesty Law. This possibility granted to the ex-convict caused strong reactions. Both cases about Ağca were merged and tried before the Kadıköy 1st High Criminal Court. The single trial concerned the usurpation of Cengiz Aydos' taxi in 1979, robbing the Yıldırm jewelry store in Kızıltoprak on March 22, 1979 and stealing money from the Fruko soda storage on April 4, 1979.
On June 9, 1997, Air Malta Flight 830 was hijacked
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
by two men. After landing in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, the hijackers demanded the release of Ağca, who at the time was serving a life sentence in Italy for trying to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981. Ağca was not released and the hijackers surrendered.
On 18 January 2000, the judges decreed for a dismissal of proceedings due to the statute of limitation regarding the case filed for the jewelry store robbery and for "opposition to the Firearms Act" (law no. 6136). For usurpation and money theft Ağca was handed a 36 year prison sentence. Ağca's lawyers applied for the release of their client deriving benefit from law no. 4516 related to Parole and Postponement of Penalties in December 2000. Their request was rejected by the Kartal 1st High Criminal Court. The lawyers filed an appeal against this decision which was declined again. Ağca was sentenced to 10 years in prison for murder.
In early February 2005, during the Pope's illness, Ağca sent a letter to the Pope wishing him well and also warning him that the world would end soon. When the Pope died on April 2, 2005, Ağca's brother Adnan gave an interview in which he said that Agca and his entire family were grieving, and that the Pope had been a great friend to them. On April 5, 2005 CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
stated that Ağca would want to visit the Pope's funeral on April 8, 2005. However, Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
authorities rejected his request to leave prison to attend.
Ağca was released on parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
on January 12, 2006. Mustafa Demirbağ, his lawyer, explained his release as a combination of amnesty and penal reform: an amnesty in 2000 deducted 10 years from his time, the court then deducted his 20 years in the Italian prison based on a new article in the penal code, and he was then eligible to be paroled based on good behaviour. However, a report from the French AFP news agency stated that "The Turkish judicial authorities still haven't explained exactly which legal resources he had access to", and former minister of Justice Hikmet Sami Türk, in government at the time of Ağca's extradition, claimed that, from a legal viewpoint, his liberation was a "serious mistake" at best, and that he should have not been freed before 2012. However, on January 20, 2006, the Turkish Supreme Court ruled that his time served in Italy could not be deducted from his Turkish sentence and he was returned to jail.
It was during his time in prison that he converted to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
in 2007. He claimed to be the Messiah at his trial and has made many bizarre statements over the years, although it has never been clear whether he is mentally unstable or merely acting.
On Pope Benedict XVI
After Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
was criticized by the Muslim world
Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy
The Regensburg lecture was delivered on 12 September 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI at the University of Regensburg in Germany, where he had once served as a professor of theology. It was entitled "Glaube, Vernunft und Universität — Erinnerungen und Reflexionen"...
following the September 12, 2006 Regensburg lecture, Ali Ağca wrote a letter to the Pope from jail warning him to cancel his planned trip to Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
in November 2006. In the letter, which was published in leading Italian Rome-based daily la Repubblica
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
, he stated:
Despite Ağca's warning, Pope Benedict's visit to Turkey proceeded as scheduled without any incidents.
Later developments and release
On May 2, 2008 Ağca asked to be awarded Polish citizenship as he wished to spend the final years of his life in PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Pope John Paul II's country of origin. Ağca has stated that upon his release he wants to visit Pope John Paul II's tomb and partner with Dan Brown
Dan Brown
Dan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction, best known for the 2003 bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code. Brown's novels, which are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour time period, feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and conspiracy theories...
on writing a book.
Ağca was released from jail on January 18, 2010. He was transferred to a military hospital in order to assess if, at 52, he was still fit for compulsory military service. The military found him unfit for military service for having "antisocial personality disorder
Antisocial personality disorder
Antisocial personality disorder is described by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition , as an Axis II personality disorder characterized by "...a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood...
". In a statement, he announced: "I will meet you in the next three days. In the name of God Almighty, I proclaim the end of the world in this century. All the world will be destroyed, every human being will die. I am not God, I am not son of God, I am Christ eternal."
Claims of Vatican involvement in the assassination attempt
In November 2010, he publicly asserted that Cardinal Agostino Casaroli had been the man behind the assassination attempt on John Paul II in 1981.Cultural references
Ağca's shooting of the Pope and the alleged KGB involvement is featured in Tom ClancyTom Clancy
Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...
's 2002 novel Red Rabbit
Red Rabbit
Red Rabbit is a New York Times bestselling novel by Tom Clancy. It incorporates the 1981 plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II.-Plot summary:...
and Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...
's novel The Fourth Protocol
The Fourth Protocol
The Fourth Protocol is a novel written by Frederick Forsyth and published in August 1984.-Explanation of the novel's title:The title refers to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which contained four secret protocols. The fourth, of the protocols, was meant to prohibit the non-conventional...
. He has also been mentioned in the book "The Third Revelation" by Ralph McInerny
Ralph McInerny
Ralph Matthew McInerny was a Roman Catholic, American, philosopher, University professor, and prolific author, including fiction of which some appeared under the pseudonyms of Harry Austin, Matthew FitzRalph, Ernan Mackey, Edward Mackin, and Monica Quill, and mysteries of which his best known is...
as well as in the 1981 Greek play The Tape by Loula Anagnostaki, where the leading hero is recording a message to Ali Agca.
See also
- Alois EstermannAlois EstermannAlois Estermann was a senior officer of the Swiss Guard who was murdered in his apartment in the Vatican City.Estermann was born in Gunzwil, in the Canton of Lucerne...
, Swiss GuardSwiss GuardSwiss Guards or Schweizergarde is the name given to the Swiss soldiers who have served as bodyguards, ceremonial guards, and palace guards at foreign European courts since the late 15th century. They have had a high reputation for discipline, as well as loyalty to their employers...
assassinated in 1998 in mysterious circumstances - Emanuela OrlandiEmanuela OrlandiEmanuela Orlandi was a citizen of Vatican City, who mysteriously disappeared on June 22, 1983.-Disappearance:Orlandi, then 15-year-old, vanished on June 22, 1983. She was in her second year at a liceo scientifico in Rome...
, "disappeared" in the 1980s, maybe in relation to Gladio and Propaganda DuePropaganda DuePropaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
; Archbishop Paul MarcinkusPaul MarcinkusPaul Casimir Marcinkus was an American archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He was best known for his tenure as President of the Vatican Bank from 1971 through 1989.-Early life:...
has been alleged to be part of the kidnapping, which may have been done in order to press the Pope to ask for Mehmet Ali Ağca's liberation to the Italian state (according to Mehmet Ali's 2005 interview to La Repubblica). - Juan María Fernández y KrohnJuan María Fernández y KrohnJuan María Fernández y Krohn is a former Roman Catholic priest and former Belgian lawyer who tried to physically attack Pope John Paul II in 1982....
, a former Roman Catholic priest who tried to stab Pope John Paul II - Rabia KazanRabia KazanRabia Özden Kazan is a Turkish journalist.She started her career as a TV reporter in 1996 with Later hosting Istanbul, for the Turkish channel Flash TV. Then she became a journalist for the MHP affiliated newspaper Ortadoğu, where she worked for six years...
, who interviewed Ali Ağca when he was in jail
External links
- Mehmet Ali Ağca at NNDBNNDBThe Notable Names Database , produced by Soylent Communications, the same entity that produces Rotten, Daily Rotten, Dr. Sputnik's Society Pages and Penny Postcards, is an online database of biographical details of over 36,000 people of note...
- Timeline