Second Turkish police arrested over 2016 Russian ambassador's assassination

In late 2016, an off-duty Turkish officer repeatedly shot Moscow's top envoy from behind while the ambassador was visiting an Ankara art exhibition titled "Russia through Turks' eyes."

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - Turkish security forces on Thursday detained a second police officer in relation to last year's assassination of Russia's ambassador to Ankara, Andrey Gennadiyevich Karlov.

According to state media, the detainee, Ramazan Yucel, accused of taking part in the Karlov murder was an officer already dismissed from his job over alleged ties with the US-based Islamic cleric, a one-time ally and current critic of President Erdogan, Fethullah Gulen.

In the evening of December 19, 2016, an off-duty Turkish police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas repeatedly shot Karlov from behind while the ambassador was visiting an exhibition titled "Russia through Turks' eyes," in an art gallery at the Turkish capital of Ankara.

This picture shows Andrey Karlov, the Russian Ambassador to Ankara, lying on the floor after being shot by an off-duty Turkish police officer in an art gallery in Turkey's capital, Dec. 19, 2016. (Photo: AFP)
This picture shows Andrey Karlov, the Russian Ambassador to Ankara, lying on the floor after being shot by an off-duty Turkish police officer in an art gallery in Turkey's capital, Dec. 19, 2016. (Photo: AFP)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's administration blames the envoy's killing on Gulenists whom pro-government media claims wanted to derail the then newly-restored Ankara-Moscow ties.

However, moments before Altintas killed Karlov; he shouted Islamic slogans associated with al-Qaeda's Syrian franchise al-Nusra Front which was then fighting against Syrian regime force supported by Russian warplanes in the besieged rebel-held eastern sector of the city of Aleppo.

"We are dying in Syria. So you will die here. You will not get alive out of here. We kill the murderers like this," the attacker said at the gallery right across from the United States Embassy.

He showed his police ID to enter the gallery.

The assassination followed a reconciliation between Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin who sided with opposing sides in the Syrian civil war that resulted in the late 2015 Turkish downing of a Russian warplane on the border with Syria.

Despite the killing of Moscow's highest diplomat in Ankara, both countries vowed to maintain robust ties and did not allow the incident to foster further hostilities.

 

Editing by Sam A.