A tribute to Turkish diplomat? Don't go asking, it's a secret;

[Yervant1]

Ottawa Citizen, Canada

August 13, 2012 Monday

Final Edition

 

 

A tribute to Turkish diplomat? Don't go asking, it's a secret; Cryptic

comments from government on rising metal mystery by parkway

 

by Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen

 

 

 

At the corner of Island Park Drive and the Ottawa River Parkway, a

mystery grows from the ground, beneath a white tarp, behind a screened

fence.

 

It appears to be a metalribbed frame in the shape of a half-sphere. It

is very large, maybe five metres in diameter, and the outer skin is

slowly being covered in cedar-like blocks of wood, like Popsicle

sticks round a bowl.

 

Sitting on a pair of metal mounts, it faces west and is tilted

slightly toward the sky, at an angle like a satellite dish.

 

What is it?

 

Well, for now, the federal government says we don't need to know.

 

The land is owned by the National Capital Commission, which takes its

public installations rather seriously. It immediately referred

questions to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International

Trade.

 

To which an official in Minister John Baird's office, had this to say:

"An announcement is forthcoming."

 

Curious. In a city where a shovel can't touch sacred NCC soil without

endless consultation and debate - this is an agency, after all, that

once fined a man for picking up a federally-owned pine cone - why all

the secrecy at such a high-profile corner?

 

Here was the followup email from Baird's office: "We'll have something

to announce in the very near future."

 

Wonderful. Except we won't need the announcement once the thing is

finished, will we? We await the press release from the feds telling us

the London Olympics have started.

 

Well, some things we know. There are Turkish workers on site and

materials coming out of 20 or so wooden crates, each bearing Turkish

writing. On the grass is a stray packing label from Turkish Airlines.

 

The Citizen has been told it is a monument, first constructed in

Turkey, then disassembled, put in crates, and shipped to our sunny

shores in numbered pieces. "Like Lego," said someone familiar with the

construction.

 

No one at the site was terribly forthcoming with information. In fact,

a construction worker, comically, began photographing a Citizen

staffer who was photographing the monument. Real spy stuff, for sure.

 

Why Turkey? A source familiar with the matter tells us it is a

monument to diplomats felled in the line of duty.

 

It is now beginning to make sense. On Aug. 27, 1982, 30 years ago this

month, a Turkish diplomat, Col. Atilla Altikat, was gunned down only

steps from the site of this installation. A military attaché, Altikat

was driving to work when he stopped at a red light. A gunman pulled up

and fired about 10 shots from a handgun toward the father of two. He

died at the wheel.

 

No one has ever been arrested, but an Armenian terrorist group claimed

responsibility.

 

The assassination was part of a worldwide attack on Turkish diplomats.

In April of that same year, in fact, a commercial counsellor attached

to the Ottawa embassy, Kani Gungor, was shot outside his home and left

paralyzed.

 

In 1985, the embassy on Wurtemburg Street, just off Rideau, was

attacked near dawn in a raid that began with a hail of bullets, then

an explosion. A Canadian security guard was killed, and the ambassador

was seriously hurt while trying to escape.

 

Taken together, they almost certainly represent the most violent

attacks ever made on the capital's diplomatic corps in 150 years.

 

A source tells us the monument is not just for Turkish victims,

however, but all members of the diplomatic community who have met with

calamity while trying to best represent their nations's interests and

further the cause of peace.

 

If this is so, it certainly would have some strong patriotic content

as the list of Canadian foreign service staff killed or injured on

duty - Afghanistan tragically reminds us - is not short.

 

The bulk of the work is to be completed within 10 days or so. It is

believed the monument will also be lit, as an electrical contractor

was on site last week.

 

It is plausible the monument will be ready for Aug. 27, the 30th

anniversary of the Altikat slaying. But, of course, we aren't allowed

to know that. Big secret and all. We only own the land.

 

The Turkish Embassy declined to comment, referring questions to

Baird's office. You know how that ends.

 

It's a shame, really, as it looks to be a magnificent symbol, a halved

globe for a broken world, in a capital that could use more outdoor

expressions of Canada's place in the world.

 

Does it, too, mark a maturation in Turkish-Armenian relations on our

soil? Possibly.

 

Or it's a giant satellite dish. How dare you even ask?