Mr. Ağca or: How Turkey learned to stop worrying and love its killers

 The media hype surrounding a convict who spent almost three decades behind bars is reminiscent of the love the character Maj. T. J. “King” Kong in “Dr. Strangelove” has for the atomic bomb.

The state of affairs in Turkey last week was similar to the enthusiasm Kong displayed in Kubrick’s movie as he straddled a nuclear missile that was to lead to the destruction of the entire world. Ağca emerged from prison on Jan. 18, and his very first moments on the outside were captured by dozens of domestic and foreign journalists.

News channels broadcast live as a group of supporters shouted slogans and a pipe and drum band played as Ağca left the prison. Almost all newspapers carried the incident in their headlines the next day, increasing public interest in the gunman.

According to most observers, the media attitude toward the gunman helped him cover up his shady past and position himself in a manner to address the public in press conferences. Ağca murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi in 1979 and received a life sentence. But he escaped from prison less than six months into his term and went on to shoot the pope in Rome two years later. The pope was hit in the abdomen, left hand and right arm, but the bullets missed his vital organs.

In July 1981, an Italian court found Ağca guilty of trying to assassinate the pontiff and sentenced him to life in prison. In June 2000, Italy pardoned Ağca for the shooting and extradited him to his native Turkey to serve the remainder of his term for the İpekçi murder.

The gunman spent around nine years in jail in Turkey.

For most observers, the Ağca incident is a major twist in the Turkish media as it has spurred many to question the ethics of journalism.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) İzmir deputy Canan Arıtman denounced the exaggerated media interest in Ağca in a written statement on Wednesday. “Press organs are turning murderers into heroes. An ignorant man [Ağca] will urge hundreds of thousands of young people to become gunmen and in this way, popular,” read the statement.

According to Nevzat Tarhan, a retired colonel and a psychiatrist, adolescents are in search of a role model who is in the public eye.

“Adolescents identify with the character of that role model. They adjust their behavior in accordance with his or her behavior. This tendency is even greater for young people who want to become popular in society. They believe they will become popular if they do the same thing as their idol,” Tarhan remarked.

At this point, Tarhan pointed out the influence of the media in helping adolescents choose a role model for themselves. “News reports that promote Ağca-like people as role models put adolescents in danger. If an adolescent has chosen a role model like Ağca, he may even think that spending 30 years in jail is worth it to become popular like him. What the media should do in such a situation is to underline that Ağca is a professional murderer and that he is not someone to be chosen as a role model. I wonder if the editor-in-chief of a newspaper would like his/her children to pick a murderer as a role model. If not, they should act with greater sensitivity in their publications,” the psychiatrist added.

Doğan Şentürk, the editor-in-chief of the Fox TV news program, said portraying Ağca as a hero would make İpekçi turn in his grave.

“Ağca’s release from prison and the ensuing developments may qualify as news, but portraying him as a national hero and offering all the details related to the gunman, such as where he had lunch and where he spent the night, are wrong. Such a portrayal would make İpekçi turn in his grave. You cannot change the reality that Ağca is a murderer whatever you do,” he remarked.

Similar ‘fake heroes’

However, the Ağca case is not the first incident in which a murderer has attracted huge attention from the press in Turkey. The murder story of 17-year-old Münevver Karabulut -- whose decapitated body was discovered in a dumpster in İstanbul -- found wide coverage in the media, with almost all the details of the killing described in an almost pornographic way. Karabulut’s murderer, Cem Garipoğlu, was captured after more than six months on the run. Detailed news stories about the murder spurred youth groups to launch fan groups for Garipoğlu on Facebook. A group which called itself “Supporters of Cem Garipoğlu” argued that the young man was innocent and Karabulut was the party to be blamed for the killing.

Similarly, hit man Ogün Samast almost turned into a national hero after he assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007. He was even asked to pose before a Turkish flag for a souvenir photo by police officers during an interrogation. Many women waited outside the courthouse where he was on trial, declaring their love for the hit man.

According to Mehmet Altan, a Star daily columnist, journalists should be interested in the shady powers that urged Ağca to assassinate İpekçi and shoot the pope rather than seeking stories about his daily life after his release from prison.

“What needs to be questioned is the power that enables Ağca to stay in luxurious hotels and travel in expensive vehicles. The issue we should focus on is not what Ağca does in his daily life. We need to find out who protects the gunman. If we do, people will not take him as a role model and want to become murderers,” Altan remarked.

Readers react to exaggerated Ağca stories

The huge interest from journalists in Ağca’s release and the ensuing scenes drew the ire of newspaper readers. Many commentators on “Ekşi Sözlük” (also referred to as Sour Dictionary or Sourtimes), a collaborative hypertext online dictionary, denounced the media’s approach to the gunman.

“His release has shown us all to what extent the media maintains its ethics. Mehmet Ali Ağca is the murderer of a journalist, namely a media worker. And he is free after serving time in jail. It is easy (!) till this point to understand. However, when it comes to the reaction of the media upon his release from prison, the issue takes on a different perspective. Ağca’s release qualifies as news, but it is not conscientious to broadcast his messages of ‘being innocent.’ I cannot understand why no importance is attached to İpekçi’s children in such broadcasts,” wrote a user, dubbed “medicine desem.”

Another user, dubbed “sanselize canavari,” accused the Turkish media of acting insincerely and hypocritically in the Ağca reports: “The Turkish media denounces attacks on the press, but makes a murderer a hero. It does not question the [financial] resources which enable Ağca to spend his days in luxurious hotels. And it claims that it is respectful toward the working class.”