AS TRUCK TERROR HITS BERLIN
Turkish cop assassinates Russian diplo in Ankara
An off-duty cop assassinated Russia’s ambassador to Turkey at an art-exhibit opening in Ankara Monday, shouting, “Allahu akh
bar,” and ranting that the execution was revenge for bloodshed in Syria.
Video footage captured the horrifying moment Ambassador Andrei Karlov, 62, was shot in the back as he stood at a podium in the exhibition hall in the Turkish capital, with the bullets ripping through his chest before he collapsed amid a fusillade of at least eight rapid-fire rounds.
Witnesses shrieked as the shooter screamed at the top of his lungs, alternately lifting his left index finger over his head and pointing his pistol at the audience.
“Don’t forget Aleppo! Don’t forget Syria! As long as our cities enjoy no security, neither shall yours!” he yelled in Turkish.
“Only death can move me from here! Whoever has a share in all this oppression, one by one they will be held to account!”
He also shouted in Arabic, “We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad, for jihad!”
The assassination came a day before a planned meeting of Russian, Turkish and Iranian officials in Moscow to discuss Syria’s nearly six-year civil war. Russia and Iran back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey wants him gone.
The killer was identified as Mevlüt Mert Altintas, 22, an antiriot cop in Ankara.
Altintas was off-duty and used his police ID to gain entry to Karlov’s speech, according to CNN Turk. He could be seen standing calmly behind the ambassador in the minutes before the attack.
After shooting Karlov in the back and firing again into his prone body, Altintas smashed several exhibits of framed Rus- sian photographs as panicked attendees ran for cover. Three people were wounded.
Altintas then fled to the building’s second floor, where he was killed following a 15-minute gunfight with police.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin — who clashed with each other last year over Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane near the Syrian border — both made televised remarks that called Karlov’s killing “a provocation” intended to derail the normalization of relations.
A top Putin ally said there was no shortage of suspects behind the obviously “planned attack” — including a Western power.
“It could be Islamic State or the Kurdish army which tries to hurt Erdogan,” said Russian Sen. Franz Klintsevich. “But it may be, and it is highly likely, that representatives of foreign NATO secret service are behind it.”
Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek tweeted that Altintas may be linked to exiled Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom Turkey has blamed for a failed military coup in July.
In a statement, Gülen — who lives in a compound in rural Saylorsburg, Pa. — said, “I condemn in the strongest terms this heinous act of terror.”
The White House issued a statement saying, “This heinous attack on a member of the diplomatic corps is unacceptable.” President Obama was briefed by his national security team while vacationing in Hawaii.
Donald Trump publicly offered condolences to the family of Karlov, who he said “was assassinated by a radical Islamic terrorist.”
“The murder of an ambassador is a violation of all rules of civilized order and must be universally condemned,” Trump said.
Hours after Karlov’s assassination, a man armed with a shotgun was arrested outside the US Embassy in Ankara after shooting into the air and trying to enter the compound, according to Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah.