Members of Ottawa’s Turkish community will gather where a diplomat was gunned down 30 years ago Sunday, but there’s an official blanket of secrecy over a memorial erected close to that spot.

Atilla Altikat, military attaché at the Turkish Embassy, was driving to work Aug. 27, 1982 when he stopped at the intersection of Island Park Drive and what’s now called the Sir John A Macdonald Parkway.

Before he could move again, a car stopped nearby to let a gunman out, who let off nine shots and left him dead.

Many people said the shooting will be remembered by a memorial near the spot where he was killed, but the Foreign Affairs minister John Baird’s office won’t confirm or deny that’s what’s happening at the construction site.

“It is going to be a memorial but it's (a secret),” said a tight-lipped construction worker. “When the ministers come, they're going to explain everything."

Colonel Altikat’s killing was one of many attacks on Turkish diplomats around the world during that time.

Those attacks had their roots in mass expulsions and killings of Armenians by the Turks in the early 20th century – the Canadian government officially recognized the Armenian genocide and the 1.5 million people killed in 2006.

Paul Douzjian, a prominent member of Ottawa’s Armenian community, said their reaction to a memorial would depend on what it said.

“Everybody condemns terrorism, but if it mentions Armenians that wouldn't be fair," he said.

The "satellite-dish" looking monument should be unveiled in mid-to-late September.

With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Norman Fetterley