Background
Mustafa Taylan Özgür was born on 23 February 1948. After finishing Ankara Atatürk High School he studied at Middle East Technical University (METU). At the university he was active in the Socialist Thought Club and served on the audit board of the student union. He was one of the better-known figures of the student movement that rose in Turkey in the late 1960s.
In January 1969 he was among those who took part in the METU protest during which the car of US Ambassador Robert Komer was set on fire. He was held in custody for about two months afterwards and released on 12 March 1969.
What happened
In September 1969 Özgür travelled to Istanbul for the general assembly of the Istanbul University Student Union. On 23 September 1969 he was shot from behind in Beyazıt Square and died. He was 21.
Accounts of the incident differ. Official and press versions of the time say security forces tried to detain him because he was carrying a weapon and that he was shot while running away. His friends and later commemorative accounts maintain that no weapon was found on him, that there was no clash, and that only a single shot was fired. The discrepancy remains disputed.
His funeral was held in Ankara on 25 September 1969 and thousands of students attended. The university administration refused a request to bury him on campus, and he was laid to rest in Cebeci Asri Cemetery.
Investigation and legal outcome
A police officer was tried in connection with the death and acquitted, so nobody has ever been convicted. Özgür’s killing is described in most sources as the first unsolved killing of Turkey’s ’68 generation.
His family, especially his sister Hale Özgür Kıyıcı, made petitions over the years asking for the case to be clarified. Each 23 September he continues to be remembered by METU students and members of the student movement.