President Vladimir Putin on Monday called the killing of Russia’s ambassador in Turkey a “provocation” aimed at sabotaging warming ties between Moscow and Ankara and efforts to resolve the conflict in Syria.
“The crime that was committed is without doubt a provocation aimed at disrupting the normalization of Russian-Turkish relations and disrupting the peace process in Syria that is being actively advanced by Russia, Turkey and Iran,” Putin said in televised comments.
“There can be only one answer to this — stepping up the fight against terrorism, and the bandits will feel this,” he said at a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister and the heads of the overseas and domestic intelligence agencies.
The Kremlin strongman said that Moscow was sending investigators to Ankara to probe the killing after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave the green light in a phone call.
“We have to know who directed the hand of the killer,” Putin said.
Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov was shot dead Monday at an art exhibition opening in Ankara by a Turkish policeman crying “Aleppo” and “Allahu Akbar,” in what Moscow termed a “terrorist act.”
The incident 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.
The foreign and defense ministers from Russia, Turkey and Iran are set to meet Tuesday in Moscow for key talks on Syria.
Turkey and Russia saw relations plunge last year when a Turkish jet shot down a Russian war plane over Syria.The two countries stand on opposite sides of the Syria conflict with Ankara backing rebels trying to topple Moscow ally President Bashar Assad.
But Putin and Erdogan have managed to mend ties since patching up their bitter seven-month dispute over the jet downing earlier this year.
Dramatic television footage showed the man — dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and tie — waving a gun and gesturing in the air at the Ankara exhibition hall where the veteran diplomat was opening a show of Russian photographs.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said the gunman had been “neutralized” in a police operation inside the hall after 15 minutes of clashes.
“Today in Ankara as a result of an attack the Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov received wounds that he died from,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in televised comments.
“We qualify what happened as a terrorist act,” she added. “The murderers will be punished.“Today this issue will be raised at the UN Security Council. Terrorism will not win out,” she added.
The mayor of Ankara Melih Gokcek identified the attacker as a Turkish policeman. The Yeni Safak daily said on its website that the attacker — named as M.M.A. — worked with anti-riot police in Ankara.
The United States condemned the attack, while British ambassador Richard Moore paid tribute to a “quietly spoken, hospitable professional.”
Erdogan phoned Putin to brief him about the attack, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said. The shooting took place at the Cagdas Sanatlar Merkezi, a major art exhibition hall in the Cankaya district of Ankara where most foreign embassies are located including Russia’s mission.
“It happened during the opening of an exhibition,” Hurriyet correspondent Hasim Kilic, who was at the scene, said.“When the ambassador was delivering a speech, a tall man wearing a suit, fired into the air first and then took aim at the ambassador,” said Kilic.
“He said something about Aleppo and ‘revenge’. He ordered the civilians to leave the room. When people were fleeing, he fired again,” he added.
Images showed the ambassador standing up to speak at a lectern at the opening of an photo exhibition called “Russia from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka” showing images from Russia’s far west to its far east.
He stumbles and then crashes to the ground after being shot, lying flat on his back as the besuited attacker brandishes the gun at terrified onlookers.
The man shouts “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest“) and then talks about pledging allegiance to 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.”
Protesters in Turkey have held Moscow responsible for human rights violations in Aleppo with thousands turning out for protests outside the Russian consulate in Istanbul.
But political relations have warmed, with intense contacts between the two sides in recent days to ease the situation in Aleppo.
The attack comes a day before Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran, Assad’s other key ally, were to hold unprecedented tripartite talks on the Syria conflict in Moscow.
Source : Arab News