Police are calling on the public to help solve an assassination cold case from more than 40 years ago involving a Turkish diplomat and his bodyguard by listening to a phone call recording in the hopes of identifying the caller and to decipher its message.
Turkish Consul-General Sarik Ariyak, 50, and his bodyguard Engin Sever, 28, were shot outside a residence in Dover Heights in Sydney’s east on December 17, 1980, by two men who fled on motorcycles after the shooting.
Turkish diplomat Sarik Ariyak was approached by two unknown men and shot in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.Credit:Barry James Gilmour
Ariyak died at the scene while Sever died a short time after in hospital.
Shortly after the shooting, an Armenian terrorist group – the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide – claimed responsibility for the killings but no one has ever been charged despite an extensive investigation by police.
It was one of the first international politically motivated attacks on Australian soil, described by police as “calculated, deliberate” and “brutal”.
In 2019, the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team – consisting of the NSW Police, Australian Federal Police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the NSW Crime Commission – launched a review and re-investigation into the case.
As part of its re-opening, detectives released an audio recording on Wednesday that contains a person’s voice who claims responsibility for the attack. The call was made by a woman to multiple media outlets after the shooting.
Investigators are asking for help to decipher inaudible words spoken in the audio clip after the words “the authors of” to identify their significance to the investigation, and for help to identify the woman.
In the recording, the woman states the killings were made in retaliation for the “injustice done to Armenians”.
Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics Commander assistant commissioner Mark Walton urged the public to listen to the clip closely.
“Identifying the female through her voice – or recognising any indecipherable words in the audio – will greatly assist us with this investigation,” Walton said.
Walton also said police believe there are members of the public who are aware of the identity of the person in the audio clip claiming responsibility for the attack.
“While we continue this investigation, we suspect there are people who know exactly what happened that day but have not yet been willing to speak with authorities,” he said.
“We’d like to hear from these people as soon as possible, as well as anyone whose memory may be refreshed by the audio we’ve released – no matter how insignificant the information may seem, it could be invaluable to the investigation.
“I’d also like to remind the community that the $1 million reward, which was announced in 2019, is still available to those who provide information in relation to the case.”
In 2020, police forensically examined a number of “barnacled” items retrieved from the bottom of Sydney Harbour as part of the unsolved investigation.
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