Nicosia, Cyprus. Monday marks 30 years since Turkish Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adali was shot dead outside his home in Nicosia on July 6, 1996. His killing came during what was arguably Cyprus’ most violent summer since 1974 and was described in most accounts as a calculated assassination.
Politically charged deaths in 1996
That same summer, Greek Cypriot demonstrators Tassos Isaac and Solomos Solomou, and Turkish soldier Allahverdi Kilic, also died in politically charged circumstances.
Unlike the deaths of Isaac, Solomou and Kilic, Adali’s killing was not described as an act driven by the heat of the moment, but as a planned attack carried out in retaliation for articles he had written two and a half months earlier.
Articles on the St Barnabas monastery robbery
The articles concerned an armed robbery at Famagusta’s St Barnabas monastery. According to reports at the time, millions of dollars’ worth of ancient artefacts were stolen and the tomb of St Barnabus was dug into.
Adali initially reported in Yeniduzen that about 15 armed assailants entered the monastery on the evening of March 14, 1996, and captured its security guards.
He also disclosed the identities of the vehicles used to transport the assailants to and from the monastery and suggested that two of them belonged to the Turkish Cypriot civil defence.
Questions raised by Adali
Adali further reported that the items taken from the monastery were likely not artefacts belonging to it, but looted property from elsewhere in the north that had been hidden there during and after 1974.
He also asked how a group of men “who resembled a small army” could have carried out such an operation without being detected at the time.
Official response
Police were alerted to the incident at 9 a.m. the following day, 14 hours after the robbery had begun and 10 hours after it had finished.
The Turkish Cypriot ruling coalition of the day, led by Hakki Atun, as well as the police and the armed forces, made no public statement on the matter for five days.
When Atun eventually made a statement, he described the robbery as a “military operation”, prompting Adali to draw conclusions in an article published in the March 23, 1996 edition of Yeniduzen.
