No tags yet.
Russia won't change just because its ambassador was assassinated
As yet, we know very little about the motives of his killer, Mevlut Mert Altintas. Chances are, we never will.
But it is at least as possible that he acted as an individual in response to Russian actions in Aleppo as that he killed on the instructions of a wider group.
Both President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Vladimir Putin may nevertheless be inclined to structure the assassination into their existing narratives, different though these may be.
The idea of a wider conspiracy, going beyond the actions of a lone gunman, whose ability to get himself, armed, to stand right behind the Russian ambassador in order to shoot him needs explanation, is inherently more convincing to many minds than the proposition that he acted alone.
Russia warned it will not make "concessions to terrorists" a day after its ambassador was gunned down in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his country remained "determined to fight terrorism" after a meeting Tuesday in Moscow with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts.
The man who opened fire on the ambassador was identified as Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, a Turkish police officer.
Tuesday's meeting had been arranged to discuss the situation in the Syrian city of Aleppo before Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov was gunned down Monday at the opening of an art exhibition in Ankara. It comes as an 18-strong investigative team of Russia's special agencies arrived in Turkey to help authorities with their inquiries.
Shooter's relatives taken in for questioning
On Monday night, Altintas, the police officer, fired several shots at Karlov, shouting, "Allahu akbar (God is greatest). Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria! Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria!"
The gunman, Mevlut Mert Altintas, was a police officer, according to Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.
