Cold case of the murder of journalist U?ur Mumcu says a lot about Turkey today

Prominent journalist, researcher and writer U?ur Mumcu was killed in Ankara 22 years ago on Jan. 24, 1993. A bomb was planted under his car, which was parked in front of his house, and exploded when he started the engine.

Mumcu had been receiving death threats because of the many files he had been investigating - from the assassination attempt on the late Pope John Paul II by a right-wing Turkish triggerman, to the relations of drugs and arms smuggling with the Kurdish issue, from the rise of the Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) to the rumored Iranian-Saudi links in political killings of the time.

Despite all of the promises given by successive Turkish governments, Mumcu?s case has still not been entirely solved.

When considered in retrospect, it can be observed that the murder did not only aim at a journalist, and freedom of the press. I was part of a bigger picture - 1993 was a very bad year for Turkey.

Here is the list of events in 1993:

- Jan. 24: Mumcu was assassinated.

- Feb. 5: Adnan Kahveci, one of former President Turgut Özal?s most trusted aides and former finance minister, died in a suspicious traffic accident near Ankara.

- Feb. 17: General E?ref Bitlis, the commander of the Gendarmerie Forces, died in a helicopter accident near Ankara. He was working on a feasible Kurdish solution plan with Özal. His family still claims that the crash was not an accident.

E?ref Bitlis (C) with Massoud Barzani (L) and Jalal Talabani (R).

- Mar. 17: PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan announced a unilateral cease-fire with the mediation of Iraqi Kurdish leader (later an Iraqi president) Jalal Talabani, with backstage instructions by Özal, following the heavy bloodshed in 1992.