Posted on 01/12/2006 6:20:50 PM PST by blam
Cheers and petals for the Turk who shot the Pope
By Kate Connolly, in Istanbul
(Filed: 13/01/2006)
Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish nationalist who shot Pope John Paul II, was showered with petals by supporters after being released from prison after 25 years.
The man responsible for one of the 20th century's most notorious assassination attempts shook hands with guards before being driven away from Kartal high-security jail in Istanbul yesterday.
Mehmet Ali Agca arrives at a military recruitment centre
Dressed in jeans, he said nothing to journalists but held aloft a magazine showing a photograph of his meeting with the late Pope in jail in Italy at which John Paul forgave him. The headline read: "Why forgive?"
Onlookers watched from nearby balconies and Right-wing well-wishers, including a convicted hijacker, cheered, waved flags and threw red and yellow carnations at the car which whisked him away.
Agca spent most of his jail term in Italy. He returned to Turkey in 2000 where he would have served sentences until at least 2016 for other crimes, including a journalist's murder in 1979.
But a recent change in the law ensured Agca, now 48, received an amnesty.
His brother, Adnan, celebrated his release outside the prison walls by slaughtering a sheep, spilling its blood down the street.
"We are happy," he said. "We are eternally thankful to the Turkish state."
Yesterday Milliyet, the newspaper at which his journalist victim, Abdi Ipekci, worked as a columnist, led the cries of condemnation against his release.
"Day of Shame", ran its headline. "This is a travesty for Turkish justice."
In a letter to the paper Mr Ipekci's daughter, Nukhet, said her family would appeal against the release of the man who has been labelled Turkey's most famous son and biggest embarrassment.
"I see him as our national assassin," she wrote. "He is a person that has caused the words 'Turkish' and 'murder' to come together."
The Pope was seriously injured when Agca, then a 23-year old far-Right militant, shot him in the abdomen in a crowded St Peter's Square in May 1981.
When the Pope, travelling in an open-top car, collapsed, it was not immediately clear what had happened, as the sound of the four shots was lost in the noise of the crowd.
John Paul was back at work within a month but never enjoyed full health again, dying last April after years of suffering from Parkinson's disease.
The first Polish Pope was always convinced he had developed the illness as a consequence of the attempt on his life.
He donated the bullet from his abdomen to the Fatima shrine in Portugal, believing that Our Lady of Fatima had both predicted the assassin's attempt and protected him from death.
In his memoir, Memory and Identity, published shortly before his death, the Pope wrote: "Agca knew how to shoot, and he certainly shot to kill. Yet it was as if someone was guiding and deflecting the bullet."
Agca's motives remain shrouded in mystery. Guards who overpowered him found a note in his pocket which read: "I killed the Pope to protest against the imperialism of the Soviet Union and the United States and against the genocides they are perpetrating in El Salvador and Afghanistan."
But he changed his story several times.
According to one theory, he was working for the Bulgarian secret service, which was taking orders from the KGB. But a 1986 trial failed to prove the "Bulgarian connection".
Agca's first task on leaving prison was to negotiate with authorities who say the draft dodger has to undergo his military service, compulsory for every Turkish male, before he is allowed to taste real freedom.
He donated the bullet from his abdomen to the Fatima shrine in Portugal, believing that Our Lady of Fatima had both predicted the assassin's attempt and protected him from death.
Is there an oxymoron in this someplace, hmmm?
Gee swell.
Small wonder Islam is so hated around the rest of the world.
Just imagine the welcome Sirhan Sirhan would get if he were released and sent home to the Palestinian Authority.
Reminds me of the story of the prodigal son.
22But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:
24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
--Luke 15
I think he'd be more worried about them guarding HIS back! Bwaahahaaaaaaaaaa
Obviously not; I'd put him out in front.
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