Background
Doğan Öz was a deputy public prosecutor in Ankara in the late 1970s. At the time, streets and campuses across Turkey lived under the shadow of political violence, and many students, teachers, journalists and public officials were killed in armed attacks. Öz is known as one of the prosecutors who looked into how armed groups were organised and into claims of unofficial structures inside the state.
According to accounts of his work, his inquiry reached a clandestine network known as the "Counter-Guerrilla". It is also recorded that he ordered a search of a student dormitory used by ultranationalist youths. After his death, a report on the counter-guerrilla was reportedly found on his desk, and his wife is said to have passed a copy to the prime minister of the day.
What happened
On the morning of 24 March 1978, Öz left his home in Ankara and got into his car, parked near Kızılırmak Street, when he was shot and killed. The attack took place in a busy neighbourhood in front of many witnesses, so its details were widely covered in the press of the time and in later accounts. Sources differ on small points such as the number of shots fired and whether the street is called a "street" or an "avenue".
The killing shook judicial circles. Öz is remembered as one of the first prosecutors in the history of the Turkish Republic to be killed because of his office, and he is counted among the emblematic victims of the political violence of the 1970s.
Investigation and trial
After the murder a witness identified one of the attackers, and a detained suspect reportedly gave a detailed account of the killing. A martial-law court convicted the defendant, but the verdict was overturned on review. In the end, following rulings in the military court process, the defendant was acquitted and released. Press reports place this around 1984–1985. A man described as the organiser was never caught. As a result, no final conviction exists for the murder.
For decades Öz's family and lawyers called for the network behind the killing to be exposed. In 2013, Turkish media reported that the Ankara prosecutor's office would open an investigation into the Special Warfare Department in connection with the acquittal.
Where it stands today
Doğan Öz is commemorated every 24 March in Ankara by bar associations, professional bodies and his relatives. The background to the killing has still not been fully explained. The case is remembered as an example of attacks on legal professionals going unpunished and of allegations about clandestine state structures that were never fully tried. His name therefore often comes up in debates on judicial independence and accountability.