On 1 February 1979 , two members of the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves , Oral Çelik and Mehmet Ali Ağca ( who later shot Pope John Paul II ) , murdered Abdi İpekçi in his car on the way back home from his office in front of his apartment building in Istanbul . Ağca was caught due to an informant and was sentenced to life in prison . After serving six months in a military prison in Istanbul , Ağca escaped with the help of military officers and the Grey Wolves , fleeing first to Iran and then to Bulgaria , which was then a base of operation for the Turkish mafia
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Pope John Paul II assassination attempt
Abdi İpekçi