Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was shot dead on Monday by an assassin who told him: “We die in Aleppo, you die here.”
The gunman – an off-duty policeman – opened fire at an art gallery in Ankara as Andrei Karlov was making a speech, then stood triumphantly over his body shouting “revenge for Syria and Aleppo”.
Photographs taken by an Associated Press photographer who kept his finger on the shutter while others dived for cover captured the aftermath of a murder which Russia described as a “terrorist act”.
The killer was named on Monday night as Mevlut Mert Altintas, a 22-year-old riot squad police officer who has been based in Ankara for the past two years.
He shouted “Allahu Akbar” – God is great – as he pulled the trigger, but was unclear whether he was inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) or the rebels who have finally been crushed in Aleppo after four years of war.
Reports in Turkey suggested he recited a message in Arabic similar to a phrase associated with the rebel group Al Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.
He was shot dead by police in a shoot-out that lasted 15 minutes. Three other people were wounded in the attack.
President Putin spoke on the phone to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the shooting and Moscow said it was “a tragic day in the history of our country and Russian diplomacy”.
Russia and Turkey, which back opposing sides in the Syrian civil war, had entered a diplomatic crisis when the Turkish air force shot down a Russian jet in November 2015, but in recent months Mr Putin and Mr Erdogan have been in regular contact, and have held talks about a general ceasefire in Syria.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: "We qualify what happened as a terrorist act. The murderers will be punished.
"Today this issue will be raised at the UN Security Council. Terrorism will not win out."
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