Ayhan Hikmet was a

Turkish Cypriot Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( tr, Kıbrıs Türkleri or ''Kıbrıslı Türkler''; el, Τουρκοκύπριοι, Tourkokýprioi) are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,00 ...

who was allegedly assassinated by the Turkish

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

group TMT. He was a London-trained barrister, and editor of the Turkish Cypriot weekly newspaper ''Cumhuriyet''. On 23 April 1962, masked men broke into his home and shot him in the presence of his wife. His two children were asleep in another room. On the same day, his friend and colleague Ahmet Muzaffer Gürkan, who founded ''Cumhuriyet'' and served as its first editor, was also murdered. He was found dead in his car on the outskirts of Nicosia the following morning. Both men had been instrumental in founding the Cyprus Turkish People's Party in October 1961, which in its first manifesto had been critical of the Turkish Cypriot leaders, eschewed

partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

, and called on Turkish Cypriots to support a united

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

. Following their murders ''Cumhuriyet'' ceased to be published. President Makarios described the murders as an “odious crime” against individuals who had “ranged themselves on the side of cooperation and the harmonious coexistence of Greeks and Turks and persistently condemned the policy of the extremist elements in their community." He added: “No matter what political differences there may be among the members of the Turkish community, on no account are murder and violence permissible against their opponents, especially when those opponents practise the high calling of journalism.” Dr.

Fazıl Küçük Fazıl Küçük (; el, Φαζίλ Κιουτσούκ; 14 March 1906 – 15 January 1984) was a Turkish Cypriot politician who served as the first Vice President of the Republic of Cyprus. Biography Fazıl Küçük, the son of a farmer, was ...

, then Vice-President of Cyprus, said: “I think the persons who committed these murders will not be able to serve any other purpose than undermine order and security within our community and the whole island.”See “Murder of Two Journalists in Cyprus”, ''The Times'' (UK), 25 April 1962, p. 12.

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An interview with his daughter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hikmet, Ayhan Turkish Cypriot political writers 1962 deaths Assassinated Cypriot people 1929 births Turkish Cypriot expatriates in the United Kingdom