Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Assassination in Turkey
Off-duty Turkish police officer guns down ambassador, is killed by security
Gunman murders Russian ambassador at Ankara art exhibit.
ISTANBUL — An offduty Turkish police officer who shouted, “Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria!” shot and killed Russia’s ambassador to Turkey on Monday as he delivered a speech in the capital, Ankara — a bloody episode that was captured on video and posted on social media.
The assailant, identified by Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu as a 22-year-old riot policeman, was himself gunned down by security forces. The ambassador, who was shot multiple times, was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time after the shooting, officials said.
The attack appeared to represent the latest violent spillover of the Syrian conflict into neighboring Turkey. Suicide bombings linked to the fighting in Syria have become almost commonplace in Turkey, often causing mass casualties, but this was the first deadly attack on a senior diplomat that was seemingly motivated by the brutal and multi-sided war next door.
Russia and Turkey, which have both intervened militarily in Syria, are on opposite sides of the conflict. Russian firepower has helped Syrian President Bashar Assad cling to power and recapture oppositionheld east Aleppo; Turkey has allied itself with some of the rebels seeking to topple him.
Video of the attack, which took place at a photo exhibition sponsored by the Russian embassy, shows the envoy — veteran diplomat Andrei Karlov, 62 — collapsing minutes into his speech after apparently being shot from behind. The gunman moves into the frame, clad in a black suit and tie and holding a handgun, and can be heard shouting in Turkish as onlookers flee in panic. At least three bystanders were reported injured.
“We die in Aleppo, you die here!” the shooter yells out before firing several shots into the air. “You will not taste security until our towns are secure! Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria! Whoever is part of it will get their punishment!”
Secretary of State John Kerry called the assassination “a despicable attack” and “an assault on the right of all diplomats to safely and securely advance and represent their nations around the world.” He pledged U.S. help in pursuing the investigation.
In New York, Presidentelect Donald Trump also responded to the attack: “Today we offer our condolences to the family and loved ones of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov, who was assassinated by a radical Islamic terrorist,” he said in a statement.
“The murder of an ambassador is a violation of all rules of civilized order and must be universally condemned.”
The basis for Trump’s claim that the incident was an act of Islamist terrorism is not clear; Turkish officials have said they are investigating the attack as a possible act of terrorism.
Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were quick to draw a connection to July’s attempted coup against Erdogan, which was followed by a purge of tens of thousands of suspected political opponents. The mayor of Ankara, Ibrahim Melih Gokcek, who is from Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, said the shooter was a follower of Fethullah Gulen, an elderly cleric living in the United States and blamed by Turkey for masterminding the coup attempt.
Relations between Turkey and Russia nose-dived in November 2015 after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet along the Syrian border. Erdogan earlier this year had a fence-mending session with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the two countries have agreed to revive a naturalgas pipeline project that had been suspended.
The two countries have also cooperated to a degree on Aleppo. The killing came on the eve of planned talks in Moscow between Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on the humanitarian crisis in the Syrian city.
The assassination came on the heels of near-daily protests outside the Russian embassy in Ankara as well as the consulate in Istanbul. Thousands of Turks and Syrians have been holding rallies at the Russian diplomatic outposts, along with the Iranian consulate and embassy, over the two governments’ war roles in support of Assad. They have escalated amid reports of heavy civilian casualties in Aleppo during the re-capture of the city’s eastern sector from the rebels.
Scores of Turkish police were deployed at a protest last week at the Russian consulate on Istanbul’s main central avenue that drew thousands.