An Islamic militant angry at Turkey’s military cooperation accord with Israel attempted this week to assassinate the Turkish president.
During a ceremony Saturday in the western Turkish town of Izmit, the assailant pulled a gun and pointed it at President Suleyman Demirel.
A plainclothes security guard tackled the man and the gun went off, slightly injuring a policeman and a journalist, but leaving the president unharmed.
According to Turkish authorities, the gunman was angry about an agreement the government signed in February with Israel. As part of that accord, Israeli pilots gained the right to train in Turkish airspace.
The accord prompted a one-day visit to Israel this week by Turkey’s naval chief, a move that was expected to draw renewed protests from Islamic militants.
Word of the accord leaked out only in April. Many details of the pact remain secret.
Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has been among the most vocal opponents of the accord in the Arab world, expressing reservations over whether it would disturb the regional balance of power.
Syria and Iran, along with Turkey’s Islamist party, have also denounced the accord.
Many Muslims in Turkey who protested the accord hope to see the officially secular state abandon its relations with Israel and enact a code of strict Islamic law.
The party with the most seats in Parliament is the pro-Islamic Welfare Movement, which draws many of its supporters from the country’s poor.
Welfare leader Necmettin Erbakan reportedly called the assassination attempt a “detestable act.”
Israeli President Ezer Weizman telephoned Demirel on Saturday evening to voice his regrets over the attack.
Demirel, who has long supported a Western-oriented foreign policy and a free- market economy, said in a speech Sunday that the assassination attempt would not change his commitment to a secular, democratic state.
As part of his visit Monday to Israel, Adm. Guven Erkaya toured the Israeli naval base at Haifa as a guest of his Israeli counterpart, Maj. Gen. Alex Tal.
The Turkish media reportedly said the two countries were planning joint naval exercised in the Mediterranean next month.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
