[1] He was a trained barrister, and editor of the Turkish Cypriot weekly newspaper Cumhuriyet.
[2] On 23 April 1962, masked men broke into his home and shot him in the presence of his wife.
On the same day, his friend and colleague Ahmet Muzaffer Gürkan, who founded Cumhuriyet and served as its first editor, was also murdered.
[4] 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.”[5] Fazıl Küçük, 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.”[6]