THE PLOT TO MURDER THE POPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505130056-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: September 1, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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;7:--* RED
READER'S DIGEST
September 1982
A READER'S DIGEST EXCLUS
'Phis investigation of the elaborat
l1 plot to murder Pope John Paul I.
one of Europe s most respected
American-born Claire Sterling, who has lived in
Italy for the past 30 ~y'ears. Such investigative
reports as last year's The Terror Network, which
Foreign Affairs called a "landmark book on terror-
ism,' have earned Sterling an international repu-
tation. They have also opened doors for her to
n
primary information sources available to few in
her field. Working on assignment for header's
Digest, Sterling traveled forfour months, tapping
these sources in Turkey, West Germany, Italy,
Tunisia and other countries. The evidence she has
assembled. casts sinister new light on last year's
events in 'St. Peter's Square. A key element in
the complex web: the Bulgarian connection. oIM?
THE BY CLAIRE S-ruu-.G
PLOT TO
MURDER
THE POPE
Qn Wednesday, May 13,198 1, a young man
in St. Peter s S uare shot and nearly-killed
-Poe John Paul II. The gunman, captured
p at the scene, was soon identified as Mehmet
Ali Agca (ronounced Ahjah), a 23-year=old
Turk. Within hours the world learned that
he had escaped from an Istanbul prison
while awaiting a death sentence for the
ter- rorist murder f a Turkish journalist. Front-
page stories around the lobe described him
as a fascist thug workirig for Turkey's neo-
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-^TICLE /1Prs:ABE.D
01, par 71
September 1982
A READER'S DIGEST EXCLUSIVE REPORT
This investigation of the elaborate international
plot to murder Pope John Paul II is the work of
one of Europe's most respected journalists-
American-born Claire Sterling, who has lived in
Italy for the past 30 years. Such investigative
reports as last year's The Terror Network, which
Foreipt Affairs called a "landmark book on terror-
ism,' have earned Sterling an international repu-
tation. They have also opened doors for her to
primary information sources available to few in
her field. Working on assignment for Reader's
Digest, Sterling traveled for four months, tapping
these sources in Turkey, West Germany, Italy,
Tunisia and other countries. The evidence she has
assembled casts sinister new light on last year's
events in St. Peter's Square. A key element in
the complex web: the Bulgarian connection. ?o?
THE BY CLAIRE S-rkuw;
PLOT TO
MURDER
THE POPE
QnWednesday, May 13,198 1, a young man
in St. Peter's S are shot and nearl ldiled
Pope John Paul II. The gunman, capptured
at the scene, was soon identified as Mehmet
Ali Agca (pronounced Ahjah), a 23-year-old
Turk. Within hours the world learned that
he had escaped from an Istanbul prison
while awaiting a death sentence for the ter-
rorist murder f a Turkish 'ournalist. Front-
page stories around the globe described him
as a fascist thug working for Turkey's neo-
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Nazi Gray Wolves. It was pre-
sumed that the Gray Wolves had
sent Agca to Rome to kill the
Pope-or that he was a right-wing
crackpot acting on his own.
But Mehmct All Agca was nei-
Gray Wolves hit man nor
ther
crackpot. And he did not act alone.
As I learned in months of investiga-
tion, there is hard evidence that
Agca was an instrument in an elab-
orate international plot. Whether
through negligence, nearsighted-
ness or indifference, not a single
country concerned has pressed an
investigation to the end.
Agca's trial in Rome in July 1981
lasted just 72 hours. Testimony was
limited strictly to his guilt in actual-
ly firing the two gunshots that
grievously wounded John Paul II,
the first Polish pope in the history
of the Roman Catholic Church.
Agca was sentenced to life impris-
onment, but not a word was said in
the courtroom about a plot. Two
months later. however, in a report
explaining the sentence, the judge
referred to "hidden forces" and
"the existence of a high-level
conspiracy."
Italian belief in the existence of
such a conspiracy was formally con-
firmed in June of this year with she
arrest in Switzerland of a Turk
named Omer Bagci. In asking for
extradition, Italy accused Bagci of
"direct participation in the at-
tempted assassination of Pope John
Paul II."
Long before this development,
however, there was proof of a
plot. At the scene of the crime,
Agca had at least two accomplices.
One, not identified, was photo-
graphed from behind (by an ABC-
7v newsman) as he fled the crowd
with a gun in his hand. A second,
clutching a black dispatch case, was
seen racing for a bus on the edge of
St. Peter's Square. Several witness-
es noticed him because he jumped
off the bus at the next stop. On the
basis of their descriptions, a com-
lxositc portrait was made that bore
a striking resemblance to a half-
hidden ce next to Agca's in a
snapshot taken by an Italian pho-
tographer. At the close of Agca's
trial, Turkish police tentatively.
identified this second man as Omer
Ay, also a terrorist fugitive.
Agca's conspiratorial ties with
Omer Ay were subsequently traced
through a passport office in the
Turkish town of Nevschir. Both
men had been provided with per-
fectly counterfeited passports is-
sued there on the same day (August
1 t, 1y8o), with consecutive num-
bers (136635 and 136636). Although
these passports carried photographs
of Agca and Ay, they bore the
names of two Nevschir residents
(I aruk Ozgiln and Galip Yilmaz).
Agca was still using his Ozgiin
passport when he arrived in (tome.
was found there. He had dutifully
torn up postcards of the Pope rid-
ing in an open jeep. The bag, care-
fully chosen to contain his bulky
Browning automatic, was with him
at the Vatican.
New Breed. These scattered
leads were not much to go on, but
others were furnished by Agca
himself. Although he refused to
testify at his trial, he had previously
told his interrogators a great deal-
much of which turned out to he
true. In this and other ways, he was
full of surprises.
He fit into none of the common
Still more suggestive of a con- slots: religious crackpot, national-
spiracy are notes, jotted in Turkish, ist fanatic, mere hired mercenary,
that were found in Agca's pocket at fascist hit man or communist
the time of his arrest. A "control"! agent. Tall and gaunt, with deep-
must have given him these last- set dark eyes framed by cropped
minute instructions: black hair and high !cheekbones,
Friday between 7 and 8 a.m.
telephone.
May 13, Wednesday, appear-
ance in the Square.
May 17, Sunday, perhaps ap-
pearance on the balcony.
May 20, Wednesday, Square
without fail.
Choose a bag carefully.
Hair dye is 'essential.
If necessary, wear a cross.
Short jeans, sports shoes,
Montgomery jacket.
After Wednesday, round trip
to Florence or nearby sta-
tion. Be careful not to be
seen around Vatican or
places where attract atten-
tion.
Necessary: tear up postcards.
Finances: 6oo,ooo lire (t 8o,ooo
hotel, 20,000 telephone,
200,000 daily expenses,
1oo,ooo for shoulder bag.
pants and shirt, ioo,o0o re-
serve foe emergencies.)
Tomorrow, money for three
days in hotel.
Necessary: trip to Naples,
purchase bag and hair dye.
Check if train ticket valid.
Be very careful about food.
Breakfast here at 9 a.m.
Agca displayed quick intelligence
and a confidence close to arrogance.
With cool skill, he faced down his
Italian questioners, who had no
doubt that he had been coached by
experts.
Judge Domenico Sica, who has
cross-examined scores of terrorists,
assured me that he had never expe-
rienced one like Agca. "From the
start, he dominated the interroga-
tion," Sica said. "He would lead
me where he wanted to go and
then, when I confronted him with
contradictions, he would just stop
talking."
According to Nicola Simone, of
m ms, ;os, Italy's anti-terrorist po-
lice, "lie could even put himself to
sleep in a chair and wake up re-
freshed. He was always in control."
Showing no signs of guilt or fear,
Agca was at once secretive and
oddly talkative. What he cared
about most was terrorism for its
own sake. While insisting it was his
own idea to kill the Pope, he boast-
ed of getting help from various
terrorists abroad-"Bulgarians,
English and Iranians."
I make no distinctions between
fascist and communist terrorists."
he told his interrogators. "My ter-
rorism is not red or black: it is red
"Here" was the Pensione Ise in!
I and black." He called himself an
Rome, where his room had been "international terrorist," one of a
reserved by somebody speaking
fluent Italian; Agca does not. The
hair dye for his getaway disguise
Y.d
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new breed emerging after a decade
of planet-wide violence. From
what I could confirm in his story,
this self-assessment seems close to
the truth.
If any country offered ideal con-
ditions for development of that new
breed, it was Agca's homeland.
Eastern outpost of NAVY) and for
years one of the few Islamic democ-
racies, Turkey was singled out- for
systematic demolition by the Soviet
Union as early as the mid-196os.
At that time, according to high-
ranking KGB defector Vladimir
Sakharov, a few young Turks were
handpicked for training in the So-
viet Union. and in Syria under
Soviet supervision. With their
return home, there began what
Sakharov called "a violent cam-
paign of urban terrorism, kidnap-
ping and assassination."
Left-wing violence started in
1968 in the universities, eventually ~
striking sparks on the right. Fach
side then inflamed the other. and
the killings spread from big cities to
remote villages. By September
1980, when the military took over
to stop the turmoil, Turkey was
enduring terrorist murders at a rate
of about one every hour.
Favorite Son. Out of this ungov-
ernably wild environment stepped
Mehmet Ali Agca. Born in 1958,
near Malatya. an ancient provincial
capital. Agca was ten when the
troubles began. leftists held the
city of Malatya, rightists the outly-
ing shantytowns, including Ycsil-
tepe, where Agca grew up. Friction
flared between the right-leaning
Sunnite and left-leaning Alawitc
Moslem sects, fanned by calculated
provocation on both sides.
Th A cas were Sunnite. But
Mehmet Ali had plenty of those. TH1ZO is a sister group of one of
His father was a drunk who beat five clandestine groups Agca said
be-
his wife; he died early in the mar- he "maintained relations with"
the
riagc, leaving her with three small twcen 1977 and 1979. Two children. Living on a tiny pension, others, Emegen Birligi and Halkin
Mczcyycn Agca leaned heavily on Kurutusulu, are also hard-core
Mehmet Ali, her eldest and favorite!' Marxist. Agca named as well Akin-
son. He, in turn, seemed to adore cilar, on the extreme religious right,
t the and Ulkuculer, which stands for
l
p suppor
To he
his mother. family, Mehmet Ali worked after the nco-Nazi Gray Wolves. The
school, peddling water and hauling fact that these leftist and rightist
bricks and cement. bands had been killing one another
Last December, Mezeyyen A -ca off for years did not necessarily
received me in her sparsely fur- mean they were hopelessly at odds.
nished two-room home and talked The two sides were committed to
about her son. Nothing was wrong the same immediate objective: the
with him until he went away. she dismantlement of the Turkish
said. It was during his years at democratic state. Both leftists and
Ankara and Istanbul universities i rightists thus flocked to Palestinian
that "those villains got him." At training camps. An aspiring "inter-
home. he'd been "so loyal, so re- national terrorist" like Agca would
spectful-I'll never understand it." have had no scruples about shut-
A solitary adolescent, he had no fling between one side and the other.
girlfriends, went alone to sports Volunteering to Hang. Whether
events or movies. took no interest in or not he did go to Beirut for
politics. "The only thing he cared training in 1977, Agca's life took a
about was reading," his mother mysterious turn soon afterward.
told me. "He would read until On December 13 of that year, an
three in the morning." account was opened in his name at
But before Agca left for Ankara an Istanbul branch of the Turkyc Is
in 1976, he did make some friends Bankasi. one of Turkey's major t- b in Malatya we were alll sts ro 1 so Turkish 1 re (rst $sit
2
fists, but a
Agca wrote later in his Rome pris- fortune for a hard-up student in
on cell: In 1977 1 decided to go to Turkey, and much more was to
Palestine on the recommendation come. These mysterious payments
of a schoolmate from Malatya, are a master key to the Agca case.
Sedat Sirri Kadcm. Sedat and I At the time, how-
went to Damascus. There I met ever, nobody in
Teslim Torc. who went with me Turkey knew about
to Beirut. After a 4o-day course at Agca's generous
a secret guerrilla-training camp, paymaster-or
Teslim Tore helped me get back much she anything
into Turkey."
Though we have only Agca's man from Malatya.
word for this. it cannot be dis- : He had passed un-
missed out of hand. Sedat Sirri noticed through his
Kadem. who was arrested, in 1981, university . u
turned out to be a member of' remembered
D has ev- aSdolm,itted one of Turkey's deadli- class, inactive in stin
u-
est left-wing terrorist bands. He dent politics,' the police.
knowing Agca. Tes-
lim Tore, also from Malatya, was Then. on Febru-
ary 1, 1979. Abdi
chief of the V'HKU (Turkish Pro- I {.ci, editor of the malerately left-
plc's Liberation Army), a virulent is newsitor of iprt and the it- i
A
e g Mehmet Ali showed no special grudge against the Alavvites and seemed to have little religiouscommitment. "He went to the mosque -sometimes," his younger
brother Adrian told me. Llc also drank alcohol, which is unthink-able for a pious Moslem. At the Ycsiltepe high school.
Mchmct Ali is remembered as a
model student. "He was very bright
and conscientious," said the princi-
pal. His teachers recalled that he
was "always thinking about his
personal problems.
n-
communist group. Police in
kara said that, at last report, he
was an instructor at a Palestinian
guerrilla camp in Lebanon.
tion's most influential commentator,
was shot and killed while driving
home from work. Five months after
CONTT_D
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the murder, an anonymous caller until he himself named two. "May-
told Istanbul police that lpckci's as- be he knew he'd be tortured and
sassin, named "Ali," was at a right- beaten into confessing, anyway,"
wing student hangout. the Marmara said Gunes.
coffeehouse. The police raided the By freely admitting his guilt.
place and arrested Agca. Agca in effect volunteered to get
Although Milli yet and the Turk- . himself hanged-and
ish Journalists' Union had offered a went still further by put-
reward of. six million Turkish lire ting the blame on the far
($120,000 at the time-a truly fahu- right for this sensational
lous prize in Turkey) for the capture killing. First he named as
of lpekci's killer, the anonymous the driver of the getaway
caller never showed up to collect. car a right-winger called
And while the only evidence against Yavus Caylan. Then he
Agca was his resemblance to a corn- ! said he'd gotten the mur-
posite drawing made of one of the der gun from a notorious
three men seen running from the Gray Wolf, Mehmet
murder scene, he confessed readily. Sever. He also recalled
"I did it; I killed Iprkci," he said at a returning office },,un to Sener at a
nationally televised press confer- branch othee of the (Gray Wolves')
once-speaking as if National Action Party.
he were discussing Yavus Caylan swore on the wit-
the weather. ness stand that he drove Agca to the
Agca had come murder scene knowing nothing of
to the press confer- the latter's intentions; he was sen-
ence after 15 days of fenced to three years, later in-
secret interrogation creased to iS. Mchmct Sener
at security police slipped away. to Europe unhin-
headyuarters.i,uuk- dered. (lie is currently in a Swiss
1 f Is'fication
a i
t
ing jaunty and fit, he
-
bar , on a passpor
charge. No more is likely to be
learned from him unless Switzer-
had joked with re-
porters and showed
olice land permits his extradition to Tur-
of
i
p
gn
no s
torture. , key.) 1 he gun was never found.
The story of Above all, the faceless paymaster
Mehmet Ali Agca's who had financed Agca since late
arrest. interroga- 1977 was never pursued.
tion and confession .was told to me Sending Signals. The existence
personally by Hasan Fehmi Guncs, of this mysterious figure was first
the man responsible for Turkey's brought up in court at the end of
security forces during the Iprkci af- the trial by the lpckci family law-
fair. Minister of the Interior at the yer. Sahir Erman. Setting out to
time in Premier Iiulent Ecevit's So- identify Agca's possible backers,
cialist Republican government. Erman established that a series of
Gunes was a radical well to the left of bank accounts in different cities
Eccvit, ardently committed to the had been opened in Agca's name by
incrimination of the far right for the somebody forging his signature.
worst of Turkey's terrorist crimes. Amounting to 260,000 Turkish lire
Nobody outside a tight little cir- (about $12.000 at the
cir knew of Agca's arrest for days,
Guncs told me. "I didn't even tell
Premier Ecevit," he said. Present in
person during the interrogation,
Gunes conceded that Agca's ready
confession was surprising. There
had been no witnesses against Agca
time), paid in over 12
months, the funds depos-
ited in any one city were
invariably withdrawn in
another by the real Agca.
The disparity between
the forged and genuine
signatures was obvious,
Sahir Erman assured me.
I . /
Confined in the Kar-
tal-Maltepe prison, Agca
waited in what appeared to be the
expectation of getting sprung. On
October i i, he sent out a cryptic
signal from the witness stand.
"After I was captured," he told
the court, "the Minister of Interi-
or, Iiasan Fchmi Gunes, came to
Istanbul and talked with me. His.
proposal was that, if 1 would say a
high official of the National Ac.
tion Party ordered me to kill
Iprkci, or state that I was a mem-
ber of that party, Guncs would
help me."
We may never know how much
of this statement was blackmail or
bluff. Gunes himself told me about
Agca's allegations, and added, -if
all the charges made against me
were true. I'd have been hanged
long ago."
Agca may have been laying a
false trail that first time, but there
was no mistaking his blackmailing
intent when he took the stand
again. "I did not kill Iprkci, but I
know who did," he told the court
on October 24, adding that he
would reveal the true assassin's
name at the court's next sitting. It
was an explicit warning to his pa-
trons to get him out, and that is
what they did.
On November 25, 1979, Agca
walked out of Kartal-Maltcpe mili-
tary prison, donning an army uni-
form and passing through eight
successive doors, each heavily
guarded. He could not have done it
without-high-level help.
The day after his escape. he sent
a letter to Milliyet about Pope john
Paul's impending visit to Istanbul:
"Western imperialists, fearing that
Turkey and her sister Islamic na-
tions may become a political, mili-
tary and economic power in the
Middle East, are sending to Turkey
the Commander of the Crusades,
John Paul, disguised as a religious
leader. If this visit is not called
off, I will definitely kill the
Commander-Pope."
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Coming from a youth seldom-j key's front pages for weeks on end. From Yugoslavia, Mchmet Ali
seen in a mosque, the Islamic zeal- According to Agca's handwrit- Agca embarked on a bewildering
ot's tone is unconvincing. In Rome, ten account, he entered Bulgaria on tour of the Continent, passing
Agca brushed the letter off as a ruse a less-than-perfectly forged Indian through 12 countries, never staying
to distract police from pursuing passport as Yoginder Singh. He long, often doubling back. At 22,
him while they concentrated on stayed at several expensive tourist having spent all but three years of
protecting the pope. But this is a hotels before checking into the de- his life in a poor peasant home in a
quite illogical explanation. A likeli- luxe Hotel Vitosha. There. he said, remote part of Turkey, and with no
er version is that Agca was advised he picked up the Browning .9 mm. foreign language save halting and
to write the letter for future use. he used to shoot the Pope, from heavily accented English, he moved
At this point in Agca's career. the some "Syrian" whose name he con- with apparent case around urbane
setting shifts. After his prison venicntly forgot. He also acquired European capitals. He shopped at
break, his patrons handed him over the perfectly counterfeited passport Yves Saint Laurent boutiques,
the border and up the line to some- issued to "Faruk Ozgun" from i drank champagne at fashionable
body else. The key to this next someone whose name he surpris- Biffi's in Milan, and wintered cIe-
phase lies in a lengthy stopover ingly did remember. gantly in Tunisia and Palma de
Agca made in Bulgaria on his way "At the Hotel Vitosha," Agca Mallorca.
to Western Europe. stated, "1 made the acquaintance of From the time of his escape to his
To have stayed in Bulgaria for Omer Marsan, whose name was capture in Rome, he spent some
some 5o days, as Agca did, is given to me in Turkey." Marsan $5o,u6o on plane fares and first-
enough in itself to raise suspicions was a Turk living in Munich and class hotels. Not once in his travels
about his future actions. Apart "involved in black-market opera- did Agca cash a check. Yet he was
from the Soviet Union, Bulgaria is tions-cigarettes, liquor and oc- never short of cash.
Europe's most inflexible commu- i casionally arms." For $ 1500 in Apart from his stay in Bulgaria,
Ica offered his Italian interroga-
nist police state; it is also one of deutsche marks, according to Agca, Agca
principal surrogates for Marsan undertook to procure the - tors details of only one other stop-
terrorism and subversion. Bulgaria Faruk Ozgun passport from Tur- over on the road to St. Peter's
has serviced Western Europe's ter- key and deliver it in Sofia within a pl care -a ivisit he nstructions from to Tunis.
rorist bands since the early 1970s, month. In Room 911 of the Vitosha, S
providing guerrilla-training facile- Marsan also introduced Agca to a san. whom he had telephoned often
tics and a sanctuary, and acting as a Bulgarian named oth- in Munich, lie laime the have vlsad
prime staging area for trans-ship- erwise unidentified but later to another meeting with Bulgari-
ment of Soviet-bloc weapons. accused of playing a key role in an Mustafaeof. But for all his rcti
The latest proof of this role came "running" Agca. cence on some matters, Agca has
after Italian police liberated kid- Whether or not Marsan acted as plainly gone out of his way to vol-
napped American Brig. Gen. James ~ the courier, the Oz *un passport unteer information the police are
Lee Dozier last winter and put his was given to Agca in Sofia, under unlikely to have found on their
Red Brigade captors on trial. 'Their circumstances directly implicating own. For instance,
team leader testified that, as part of the Bulgarian secret service. The the very existence
the effort "to destabilize Italy," passport was stumped at Edirne on of Omer Marsan
Bulgaria offered the Red Brigades August 30 with a -Turkish exit visa. and his where-
"money and arms" while they were That visa was a fake. But the Hui- a bouts might still
had holding Dozier. garian entry stamp, dated August A ~~ not r unknown h haOne of Bulgaria's more pros- i 31, was valid. Thus someone must g
sing assignments for the Soviet I have smuggled the Ozgun passport them.
Union has been to help destabilize from Turkey to Bulgaria-some- On May 22,1981,
neighboring Turkey. The Bulgari- one who did not match Agca's pho- nine days alter the
an secret service knows every- tograph on the passport but who Pope was shot,
?thing about Turks crossing the was able to have it stamped on the Ruinc's 1)IGOS tel-
frontier, legally or otherwise. No Bulgarian side. A courier must exec] Agca's revela-
Turk could loiter for long unub- have rushed the passport to Agca in i tions about Marsan
served in Sofia, the capital-- espe- Sofia, since he used it to leave for ' to West Germany's
Bund~skriminal-
cially not somebody like Agca, a Yugoslavia that very day. Bu es German police brought
convicted fascist murderer whose Mamt. The
arsan in for questioning, and he
picture had been fcaturrol on Tur- admitted that he had stayed in the
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Hotel Vitosha in Sofia during the !
summer of 398o. He also conceded
that he had met Agca there. but
said he had known him only as
"Metin." He agreed that Metin had
phoned him "many times" in Mu-
nich. But he asserted that he had no
idea Metin was Agca until the Pope
was shot.
The German police released
Marsan in 24 hours. lie had an-
swered questions "fully" and
"openly." they told inc, and had
committed no crime in West Ger-
many. Free to go, he dropped out of
sight.
/ gca's connections with Marsan.
and with a German named Horst
Grillmeier, are crucial to under-
standing the plot to murder the
Pope. Both men are associates of
Abuzer Ugurlu, the boss of an
enormous gunrunning ring based
in Sofia and known
as the Turkish
arms Mafia. Grill-
meier, moreover, is
known to have ac-
quired-on July 9,
ty8o-the Brown-
ing automatic that
Agca claimed to
have picked up
from the unnamed
Syrian in Sofia later
that summer. An
Italian secret docu-
ment describes
Grillmeier as a
"frequent visitor" to East Germa-
ny, Syria, Lebanon, Libya and Bul-
garia. "We believe he has been
supplying weapons to international
terrorists," the report noted.
Questioned by Austrian police after
Agca's arrest, Grillmeier was also
released in 24 hours, and vanished.
Italian intelligence officials believe
he is now hiding out in an Eastern
bloc country.
It was former Interior Minister
Giines who first conveyed to me the
immensity of Abuzer Ugurlu's
clandestine realm. "Ugurlu," he
said, "he is the Godfather!" His
smuggling trade with Turkey runs
into millions of dollars. A Turkish
citizen, Ugurlu also travels on a
Bulgarian passlwrt. I lie has a spa-
cious villa in Sofia, a privilege gen-
erally reserved for high-ranking
Communist Party leaders.
Obviously, Ugurlu has earned
these privileges by performing in-
valuable services for Bulgaria in its
drive to dismantle Tur- i
key. Large quantities of
arms found in the posses-
sion of Turkish terror-
ists-both rightist and
leftist-during the past
two years have come
through the network op-
crated by Ugurlu, with
Bulgaria's help. A defec-
tor from Ugurlu's ranks
has stated unequivocally
that the Turkish Mafia "is under
the control and supervision of the;
Bulgarian secret service."
The long and short of it, then, is
that Ugurlu worked for the Bul-
garians. The Bulgarians, in turn, do
what the Russians want them to do.
No secret police organization has
more intimate links with the KGB
than Bulgaria's. What is more, the
KGB keeps tabs on all terrorists as a
matter of course. It is inconceivable
that the KGB, would not have
known all there was to know about
a terrorist as closely involved with
the Bulgarian secret service as Agca
was.
By leaving it to Godfather Ugur-
lu's men to take care of Agca's
needs in Sofia-providing him
with a gun. a passport, contacts like
Marsan and Mustafaeof-the Bul-
garian secret service could stay one
degree removed from Agca. The
Soviet KGB, yet another degree re-
moved, might then truthfully say it
had never laid eyes on the man who
would shoot the Pope.
Inexplicable Bungle. We would
surely know more about the whole
affair if the police of West
Germany, Austria, Swit-
zerland, Italy and Tur-
key had coordinated
their efforts. Their poor
teamwork in the case of
Omer Marsan was even
worse in that of Omer
Ay. His arrest in the
West German seaport of
Hamburg last Fcbru-
ary-for a traffic viola-i
tion-caused a ripple of excitement.
Starting on May 25, t981.
Rome's Ul(:()S, via the Italian
branch of Interpol. had sent a series
of communications concerning
Omer Ay to Interpol headquarters
outside Paris for worldwide distri-
bution. They included the compos-
ite drawing of the man with the
black dispatch case, the photograph
of the half-hidden face next to Agca
in St. Peter's Square, and a photo-
graph of Omer Ay himself An
accompanying l)IGos report noted
"a strong resemblance between
the latter two. Written beneath the
composite drawing was a detailed
physical description tallying closely
to the real Omer Ay.
On June 4, Turkey issued an
international arrest warrant to the
Interpol agent in Ankara for "all-
country circulation," formally ac-
cusing Omer Ay of helping to
procure Agca's and his own coun-
terfeit passports.
Yet Interpol headquarters do
vied that they had ever received the
half-face photograph and Omer
Ay's picture from Italy. Turkey's
June q arrest warrant was not actu-
ally sent to Interpol until Septem-
ber q; they received it only on
December 7. The Hamburg police
did not receive the DIGOS docu-
ments and the arrest warrant until
the following February-nine
months after the assassination at-
tempt in Rome. By then, of course,
the trail was cold. Otncr Ay flatly
told the German police that he did
not know Agca and claimed he had
never been to Rome. The Italians
did not ask to interrogate him. The
Turks did ask, but still have not
obtained extradition.
It is hard to account for these
mix-ups and lost chances, or for
official indifference. In West Ger-
many, for instance, a high-ranking
police official handling the Agca
case told me, "Our police simply do
not take this case as seriously as
you do."
Key officials in every Western
country concerned have told me
privately that they believe the So-
viet Union was behind the hidden
forces that "ran" Agca. His control
was probably the Bulgarian secret
agent Mustafacof," says Francesco
O6
oivznvuEn
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Mazzola. head (if an Italian parlia-
mentary watchdog committee over-
seeing Italy's secret services last
year. Without naming names, sev-
eral high Vatican officials appear to
share this view. After talking with
Vatican sources, Francesco D'An-
drea of Giornale Nuovo wrote about
"a plan elaborated in collaboration
between the Soviet K(;B and a cer-
tain sector of the Turkish secret
services, tied to a powerful group in
their country that wants to force
Turkey out of NAlr) and into the
Soviet zone of attraction." Vatican
officials reached this conclusion, he
said, on the basis of "precise in( ica-
tions ... passed through diplomatic
channels."
For all Agca's moving in right-
ist circles, there is no evidence that
he was ever a Gray Wolf. Portray-
al of him as a rightist assassin does
tors to send a defiant and desperate
message to his patrons. He is still
waiting, for an answer, from back-
ers who may have no further use
for him, whose faces he may never
have seen, and whose true connec-
tions. perhaps. he never knew.
Alrmmet All Agcu at Rowe police headquarters
not really make sense. Why would Poland. Solidarity is an intolerable
rightists in or out of Turkey want threat to the very foundations of the
to assassinate the head of the Ito- Soviet empire.
man Catholic Church, especially Siet
under communist Bulgaria's aus- If that was the Russians' sole'
pices? One might equally ask, what motive, however, why would they
good could have come of it for the pick a Turk to fire the gun?
Turkish left? Among Turks close The Turk was there at St. Peter's
to the case, a widely credited theory Turgnal Christendom
alien that vaguely
holds that Turkey's right-wing, Y Was forces were infiltrated and manipu- sinister country that did not belong
fated in the Soviet Union's interest. in NA71). A Turk who happened
Here is what they believe then tran- also to carry the brand of a convict-
spired: ed fascist murderer was all the
Mehmct Ali Agca was spotted better for the part.
early on and recruited for future There is reason to believe that
use on the turbulent domestic Mehmct Ali Agca was not only
scene. He may never have known used but betrayed, that he was
who really paid and controlled him. counting on his two accomplices to
Familiar with right-wingers since create a diversion at the Vatican so
Malatya, Agca was probably en- he could slip away. Instead, they
couraged to keep moving in their ran away themselves, on orders.
company to build up a rightist per- His right-wing persona firmly es-
suna. Whether or not he was also tablished. Agca was meant to be
caught. "He was not in much of a
encouraged to help murder Abail sttion to bargain after that," said
ipekei, he was probably persuaded: a high 1)1(;()s official. "If he talked,
to confess to that killing;, covering he would just be left to rot in jail. If
f the e r others and pinning the blame on, not, maybe his patrons would
tight. spring him again."
Once freed, he was too notorious As in Istanbul, Agca talked and
to keep in Turkey, and evidently' did not talk. revealing just enough
too useful to be terminated. His information-about his contacts
Turkish patrons therefore passed with Marsan and Mustafaeof, for
him on to other forces more directly instance-to his Italian interroga-
accountable to the Soviet Union.
Many Turks believe that a num
her of their own security police
were involved with these patrons
toward the end of Agca's Turkish
phase. As Interior Minister at the
time. Guncs has been under close
investigation. His position has been
complicated by his brother's arrest
as a local leader of the underground
Turkish Communist Party and the
arrest of his two sons as members of
the left-wing terrorist I)ev-Sol.
Meant to Be Caught. A wide-
spread assumption in the West is
that the Pope must have been shot
because he is a Pole. This could be
true. Though Pope John Paul lI is
by no means an aggressive anti-
Soviet hawk. he is undeniably the
,spiritual father of Poland's Solidar-
ity trade-union movement, which
(could never have been born with-
out his blessing. As we have seen
since martial law was declared in
C0JN7'INTJ D
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VIum-
Assassin aims his weapon (circle,
above) over the beds of spwrtalors
seconds befuu showing
Abner Ugurlu. 'fhr Godfather'
wa+ot: stop) WIDE wQNW ?.0106.
Hawn Fran:) Giuus. funarr
7irrkish Inferior atlinistrr
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