Turkish journalist Uğur Mumcu commemorated on 26th anniversary of his murder

Turkish investigative journalist Uğur Mumcu was commemorated Thursday on the 26th anniversary of his assasination.

Mumcu was murdered at age 51 near his house in the capital Ankara by a bomb planted in his car on Jan. 24, 1993.

A massive commemorative ceremony held at the crime scene was attended by his wife Güldal Mumcu and son Özgür Mumcu as well as main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

Mumcu started his journalism career in the late 1960s in leftist-Kemalist publications, which were advocating a revolution led by the Turkish Armed Forces. These circles, including Mumcu, became targets of the 1971 military coup, and Mumcu was imprisoned and tortured. He later came into prominence through his memoirs regarding his persecution in the coup period and his later military service, published in his book "Sakıncalı Piyade" (Unfavorable Infantry), which became a byword for university graduates who were denied their right to become reserve officers due to their political views.

Mumcu started writing columns for center-left Cumhuriyet daily in 1975, which he continued to write until his death. He mainly focused on counter-guerrilla and foreign intelligence activities in Turkey, writing leading reports on their links to terrorist organizations, to the extent that almost all major terrorist groups and leading intelligence service were blamed following his assassination. Although several court decisions in early 2000s sentenced other perpetrators for the assassination, instigators behind the assassination were never truly uncovered.

Mumcu's assassination is among "unidentified murders" of early 1990s, in which dozens of journalists, academicians, bureaucrats and businessmen were killed within the turbulent Turkish political spectrum driven by PKK terror, rising extremist movements and increasing military pressure on politics.