Dear Sir/Madam,

You are kindly invited to the commemoration ceremony for public servants and diplomats in foreign service who were killed while serving their countries. The ceremony will also honour all slain Turkish diplomats, including Colonel Atilla ALTIKAT, Defence Attaché of the Turkish Embassy who was shot dead in Ottawa by terrorists while he was on his way to office on August 27th, 1982. Colonel ALTIKAT was the first and only fatality of a foreign diplomat on Canadian soil, and the perpetrators of the crime are still at large.

The ceremony will mark the fourth anniversary of the inauguration of the Fallen Diplomats Memorial and be held at the Monument of Fallen Diplomats (corner of Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway and Island Park Drive) on August 27th, 2016, Saturday between 14.00-15.00 hours.

The unveiling has, unfortunately, coincided with the terror incident including the killing of the young Canadian diplomat in the shopping mall attacks in Nairobi, Kenya, a day before the ceremony in 2013.

The ceremony will also be an opportunity to show our solidarity with all the countries who have lost diplomats in attacks all around the world, such as the unfortunate losses of the US Ambassador and members of the US Embassy to Libya during an attack in Benghazi in September 2012, UN diplomat who was killed at the hotel attack in Mogadishu in March 2015, and others since then.

Senators, Parliamentarians, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Members of the Turkish-Canadian community, media and general public are invited to attend the ceremony.

Regards,