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A POLICEMAN CRYING “Aleppo” and “Allahu Akbar” shot dead Russia’s ambassador to Turkey in Ankara yesterday, prompting a vow from President Vladimir Putin to step up the fight against “terrorism”.
Andrei Karlov died of his wounds after the shooting in an Ankara exhibition centre, which came on the eve of a key meeting in Moscow between the Russian, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers on the Syria conflict.
Dramatic footage showed the moment the gunman shot the veteran diplomat in the back as he opened a show of Russian photographs.
Images showed the ambassador standing up to speak at a lectern, before stumbling and crashing to the ground as shots ring out, lying flat on his back as the attacker – dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and tie – brandishes his gun at shocked onlookers.
The man shouts “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greater”) and then talks about jihad in Arabic, the images showed.
Switching to Turkish, he then says:
Don’t forget about Syria, don’t forget about Aleppo. All those who participate in this tyranny will be held accountable.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said the gunman had been “neutralised” in a police operation inside the hall after 15 minutes of clashes when he refused to surrender.
Photos showing the man lying on the ground, riddled with bullet wounds, quickly began to circulate on social media.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu identified the attacker as Mevlut Mert Altintas (22) who had worked in the Ankara anti-riot police for the last two and a half years.
His mother, father and sister were reportedly detained for questioning in their home in western Turkey.
Enda Kenny has condemned the shooting, offering his condolences to Karlov’s family.
“I condemn the callous murder of Russia’s Ambassador to Turkey and offer condolences to Ambassador Karlov’s family,” Kenny said in a statement last night.
The United States has temporarily closed its mission in Turkey following a separate shooting incident outside the American embassy in Ankara.
“An individual approached the US Embassy Ankara main gate and discharged a firearm,” the embassy said in a statement, adding no-one was hurt and the individual was detained.
‘Baying for blood’
The killing came after days of protests in Turkey over Russia’s role in Syria, although Moscow and Ankara are now working closely together to evacuate citizens from the battered city of Aleppo.
Putin called the killing of Russia’s ambassador a “provocation” aimed at sabotaging warming ties between Moscow and Ankara and efforts to resolve the conflict in Syria.
“There can be only one answer to this — stepping up the fight against terrorism, and the bandits will feel this,” Putin said at a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister and the heads of the overseas and domestic intelligence agencies.
“We have to know who directed the hand of the killer,” Putin said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan echoed Putin’s comments, saying the killing was aimed at wrecking a normalisation process that had taken root after a crisis sparked when Turkey shot down a Russian plane over Syria.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “appalled by this senseless act of terror”, while US President-elect Donald Trump condemned the killing, calling the gunman a “radical Islamic terrorist”.
The UN Security Council would observe a minute’s silence today to pay tribute to Karlov, said Spanish Ambassador Roman Oyarzun, who holds the body’s rotating presidency.
James Nixey, head of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House think tank in London, said Moscow would use the attack to step up action in what the Kremlin sees as a “war on terror”.
‘Crucial meeting’
Turkey and Russia stand on opposite sides of the Syria conflict with Ankara backing rebels trying to topple Moscow’s ally President Bashar al-Assad.
But the tone has warmed considerably since a reconciliation deal was signed earlier this year and a Russian and Turkish-brokered accord has helped the evacuation of citizens from Aleppo in recent days.
The Syrian foreign ministry in Damascus denounced the murder as a “despicable crime”, state news agency SANA said.
The foreign and defence ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran were to meet in Moscow later today to discuss Syria.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu learned of the shooting while on the plane to Moscow but insisted the meeting would go ahead as planned.
Born in 1954 in Moscow, Karlov was a career diplomat who had begun his career under the USSR in 1976. He was Russian ambassador to North Korea from 2001-2006.
I seriously hope that the idiot who passed me and 3 others cars on double white lines on the N2 last Sunday reads this.
The car was going that fast I couldn’t get the number.
The speeding and passing out on that road it unbelievable.
@Kappa: I think that’s a big issue – the disconnect between behavior and the consequences.
We constantly hear that someone died on the road. We never hear the why.
So as a driver it is easy to separate our actions behind the wheel and possible outcomes.
Like above, the car hit a tree and they both died which s dreadful but how can such a thing happen and how do I avoid it? There’s no lesson to take away bar the usual generic slow down and don’t drink & drive which fall on deaf ears.
Fatal accident on N2 yesterday was a suspected non national drunk driver, he was killed. Three vehicles involved. Two innocent people now in critical condition.
Full details will become public knowledge in due course. Locals well aware of what occurred.
This should be broadcast on all Irish channels at the same time.
I’d rather watch something about the cosmos. There’s so much out there to discover.
@Hello there. What a sad little existence you must lead. What you going to do when twitter shut down your means of hiding so you can troll?
I’ll cry :-)
I was passed on the ballyragget road in kilkenny by a fool in a supervalu van on his mobile over took me as a tractor approached , I reported this to supervalu and nothing happened , I have now reported to gardai hopefully this fool will be caught before he bn kills some one…
I think we should get the figures for the last decade of what was deemed the cause of accidents. Then increase the resourcing of prevent the causes and tell the public why. People caught speeding always seem to say it is a money making exercise, people say cyclists are a huge danger, roads are dangerous, etc… Let’s see the actual figures. I suspect it driver behaviour more than people will admit
@Kal Ipers: I would say that almost certainly, the vast majority of fatal accidents in Ireland are caused by driver error and driver choices.
Part of the problem is the very natural human feeling of compassion for the victims. The horrifying story of a young woman dying with her son is going to make anyone feel sympathy. So there’s a way to talk about it. “their car hit a tree”. It’s an event that comes like lightning out of the sky. It’s callous and cruel to look closer at why the car hit the tree. It would cause those already suffering even more pain. However, if people aren’t willing to look openly and clearly at why accidents happen, and why the causes are not accidental, but the choices people make, then there can’t be significant improvement.
The Irish record on road safety is much worse than the UK. Rural Ireland is worse than Dublin. Donegal is very, very bad indeed. This is partly due to the type of roads, and their condition, but it’s mostly due to the Irish driver, who routinely does things that in the long term will kill someone.
@Julian West: Sorry Julian, just reading your comment after I posted mine.
You said it better than me and I couldn’t agree more.
@Julian West: Hate to break it to you they do investigate these things either way. I am suggesting they publish the results in the form of stats to let the public know he truth.
@Julian.Great post.
Heartbreaking to watch and should be required viewing for anybody who is learning to drive a car.on a side note to all the whingers who complain about RTE in fairness to them they have produced two powerful programmes in the last few days on this subject and the hospital waiting lists.
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