2. An assassin can generally be defined as
someone who kills an unsuspecting victim
without a warning for a political purpose. The
typical aim of an assassin is to secure or resist
authority, to eliminate a rival for power, to
prevent or avenge a political defeat, or to
express a political grievance.
3. The goal of political murders was to spread
terror among the population. Analyzing all of
the political murders in Europe, we found
that they all related to the following motives:
racism (in particular Germany and Sweden)
and extremism and the logic of totalitarian
systems.
4. RACISM
Germany
Past:
Walther Rathenau ,a Jewish politician, was
killed by an organization called “Consul”. He
was on his way to a meeting and some people
shot him from another car. We don’t know
who the killers were.
Present:
Four Kurdish politicians were killed by an
Iranian secret service agents empowered by
Iranian politicians, who feared the Kurds
would create their own nation in their
territory.
5. RACISM
Sweden
Laserman shot 11 people in 1991-
1992. He targeted certain people
with a laser aim. These people were
random immigrants. Not all of them
were killed: just one, because the
assassin hadn’t screwed on the laser
on the gun properly.
At that time there were a lot of
racist political movements in
Sweden, for example the Neonazi
movement and a political party
called “New Democracy”.
6. Totalitarian systems
Poland
All of the murders were connected
with totalitarian systems: Fascism
and Communism.
These murders were committed by
the Security Service agents and
supported by the authorities.
Stanislaw Pyjas and Bogdan
Wlosik were murdered by the
Comunist authorities while the
Jagiellonian University professors
by the Nazi occupation authorities.
7. Totalitarian system
Estonia
In 1940, after 3 years of
Nazi occupation, the
Soviet Union occupied
Estonia.
Those who couldn’t be a
part of the red army,
were taken to labour
and concentration
camps.
8. EXTREMISM
France
We have found six different
political assassinations, like for
example the assassination of
Henry IV, the murder of Marat,
the killing of Victor Noir, the
murder of Jean Jaurés and the
assassination of George Besse.
The murder of the cofounders
of the PKK is the most similar
to the other cases in Europe.
They were three Kurdish
women who were members of
a Turkish separatist group.
9. EXTREMISM
ITaly
The political murder that
touched Italy the most is the
assassination of Aldo Moro, an
Italian politician that was killed
by a group of communist
terrorists called “Brigate
Rosse”.
It happened in a period called
“Anni di piombo” that was a
very dark page of the Italian
history.
Moro was kidnapped because
he signed a political
compromise with the
communist party. We still don’t
know why he was killed.
