Uğur Mumcu (pronounced [uˈuɾ ˈmumdʒu]; 22 August 1942 – 24 January 1993)[1] was a Turkish investigative journalist for the daily Cumhuriyet.

He was investigating the Kurdistan Workers' Party's ties with the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) at the time of his assassination.

[7][8][9] Shortly before his death, Mumcu was investigating how 100,000 firearms owned by the Turkish Armed Forces had ended up in the possession of Jalal Talabani, one of the Kurdish leaders of Kurdistan Region, who later held the office of President of Iraq from 2005 to 2014.

Twenty-five days after the death of Mumcu, General Eşref Bitlis, who had been investigating the same issue, died in a plane crash, believed to be due to sabotage.

[10] According to his son Özgür, Mumcu had an appointment with retired prosecutor Baki Tuğ on 27 January to learn more about Abdullah Öcalan's suspected ties with the MİT; the state was officially fighting his militant organization, the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

He was released on 24 October 1972 after the National Intelligence Organization forwarded a message to the prosecutor handling the case, Tuğ, that one of the suspects was one of their agents.

[12] On the morning of 24 January 1993, Mumcu left his home and was killed by a C-4 plastic bomb as he started his car, a Renault 12, license numbered 06 YR 245.

[10][15] According to this hypothesis, Iran's Ministry of Intelligence employed the virtually unknown Islamic Movement Organisation (Turkish: İslami Hareket Örgütü) to carry out the assassination.

[26] In his Cumhuriyet column, Mumcu named Ruzi Nazar as the CIA's liaison with the far-right Grey Wolves.

[28][29] Abdülkadir Aygan, a Gendarmerie Intelligence Organization or JİTEM informant from the Kurdistan Workers' Party ("PKK"), said that the assassination was carried out by JİTEM operatives including Cem Ersever at the behest of General Veli Küçük, who, years later in 2008, was tried for allegedly being a high-ranking member of Ergenekon.

[30] Aygan said that he and Aytekin Özen had a briefcase of about 20 kg of C4 obtained from a Vietnam veteran, and that they had used some of it to assassinate the President of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, Mustafa Özer.

The unnamed American soldier had allegedly given the explosives to the State of Emergency Regional Governorship (Turkish: Olağanüstü Hal Bölge Valiliği) in 1991 or 1992.

[31] A confidential forensic report, dated 29 January 1993, was prepared by the chief of the Criminal Police Laboratory, Muhittin Kaya.

[33] A report seized from retired General Veli Küçük, dated 2 February 1993 and purportedly emanating from the MİT, says that the CIA and Israel's OADNA were involved.