According to Russian news agency RIA, Russia’s ambassador to Turkey has died after suffering fatal gunshot wounds during an attack. A gunman had reportedly fired several shots at Ambassador Andrei Karlov while he was attending a public event at an art gallery in the Turkish capital Ankara.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed the attack without commenting on reports of the ambassador’s death.
“Today, during a public event, an unknown person opened fire chaotically,” Zakharova was cited as saying.
“As a result, Andrei Karlov, the ambassador to Turkey, received a gunshot wound.”
Zakharova added that medics had triedto treat the envoy at the scene but that shooting continued, retracting an earlier report that he was taken to hospital. Karlov has served as Russia’s representative to Turkey since 2013.
Ongoing assault
The government-run Anadolu Agency said that police had “neutralized” the gunman who had shot Karlov. It was unknown, however, where there were further assailants involved or still at large, or whether the situation was still unfolding.
Turkish news outlets meanwhile also reported that three other people had also sustained wounds during the exchange of fire. The police have reportedly also beefed up security around the Russian embassy itself.
It remains unclear who is behind the attack; Turkey has undergone more than a dozen major terrorist attacks in the past 18 months claimed either by the co-called “Islamic State” (IS) or the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency in the country for more than 30 years.
Anger at Russia
The Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency reported that the attacker shouted the word “revenge” and “Aleppo” before shooting the ambassador. The incident occurred following several days of rallies across Turkey, with protestors holding Moscow responsible for human rights violations and mass killings in Aleppo in neighboring Syria. Turkey has the highest number of Syrians refugees, with migrants from Syria increasingly turning into a political bargaining tool.
Turkey has been a vocal opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – while Russia has deployed troops and its air force in support of the Syrian leader. Turkey and Russia underwent a major diplomatic crises after Turkey shot down a Russian fighterjet along the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015.
