Andrei Karlov, the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, was assassinated by Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, an off-duty Turkish police officer, at an art exhibition in Ankara, Turkey on the evening of 19 December 2016. The assassination took place after several days of protests in Turkey over Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War and the battle over Aleppo.

Background 
The assassination took place after a long period of a highly polarized political atmosphere in Turkey, and after several days of protests by Turks against Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War and in particular the battle over Aleppo. Russian and Turkish officials held talks on brokering a ceasefire in Syria during the evacuation of Aleppo. Russia, Turkey and Iran planned to meet to negotiate a settlement over the Syrian Civil War.

Assassination 
Karlov, the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, had been invited to deliver a speech at the opening of an exhibition of Turkish photography of the Russian countryside. The exhibition, "Russia through Turks' eyes", was being held at the municipality owned Cagdas Sanat Merkezi centre for modern arts in Ankara's Çankaya district.

Mevlüt Altıntaş entered the hall using his police identification, leading gallery security and attendees to believe he was one of Karlov's personal bodyguards. Karlov had begun his speech when Altıntaş suddenly fired several shots at the Russian ambassador from the back, fatally wounding him and injuring several other people.

After shooting Karlov, Altıntaş circled the room, smashing pictures that were on display and shouting in Arabic and Turkish: "Allahu Akbar (God is the greatest). We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad, for jihad. Do not forget Aleppo, do not forget Syria" and "We die in Aleppo, you die here". Shortly after, Altıntaş was fatally shot by Turkish security forces. Karlov was taken to the hospital, but died from his injuries.

Motivation 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that the shooting was designed to disrupt the warming of Russia–Turkey relations. The New York Times suggested a possible motive was revenge for the Russian Air Force's targeting of rebel-held areas in Aleppo.

Although seemingly an act of revenge against Russian military involvement in Aleppo as part of the ongoing Syrian civil war, some have suspected  anti-Russian sentiment to be the cause of the attack. In a statement, President-elect of the United States Donald Trump accused the assassin of being "a radical Islamic terrorist".

Allegations of involvement by the jihadist movements of Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly known as Al-Nusra Front/al-Qaeda in Syria) have been made. Turkish authorities reportedly investigated Altıntaş' links to the Gülen movement; in a speech, Erdoğan said that the perpetrator was a member of "FETÖ". The attack was praised by IS and al-Qaeda affiliated accounts on social media. The words spoken by the assassin are similar to the unofficial anthem of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.

President Tayyip Erdogan tried to attribute the assassination to the Gülen movement, but offered no evidence to support the claim. While Turkish and Russian officials alike condemned the killing, calling it an attempt to sabotage Turkish-Russian relations, Russian officials were hesitant to attribute the killing to the Gülen movement prior to further investigation.

People involved

Victim 

Born in Moscow in 1954, Andrei Gennadyevich Karlov was educated at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and the Diplomatic Academy. He began his career with the government at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR in 1976. Karlov spoke fluent Korean and held various diplomatic positions at the Russian embassy to North Korea, including as Russian ambassador to North Korea from June 2001 to December 2006. He had been Russian ambassador to Turkey since July 2013.

Andrei Karlov is the fourth Russian diplomat to have died in the line of duty, after Alexander Griboyedov (killed as Imperial Russian ambassador to Qajar Persia in 1829), Vatslav Vorovsky (killed as Soviet representative to the Lausanne Conference in 1923), and Pyotr Voykov (killed as Soviet ambassador to Poland in 1927).

Perpetrator

The assassin was identified as Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş (; 24 June 1994 – 19 December 2016), an off-duty Turkish riot police officer.

After failing the university placement exam twice, he graduated from İzmir Police School in 2014. His sister was quoted as saying that "he started to perform prayer five times a day in police school". He served on an elite Ankara riot police unit for two and a half years, and had been part of the security detail for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on eight occasions since July 2016.

A Turkish newspaper reported that Altıntaş had been suspended in early October 2016 for suspected involvement in the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, but returned to duty in mid-November.

Altıntaş had visited Qatar several times. Following the assassination, his activities in Qatar have been under investigation.

Altıntaş' body was rejected by his family; his parents stated that "We are ashamed of him because of the murder and we will not claim the body of a traitor." His body was buried in a cemetery for unclaimed corpses.

Aftermath 

The day after the killing, Turkish authorities arrested a number of Altıntaş' family members in his home province of Aydin, as well as his flatmate in Ankara, holding the family members for one day. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also confirmed that a Russian investigative team was scheduled to arrive in Turkey on 20 December to assist with the investigation.

On 29 January 2017, Turkish prosecutors said the entirety of Altıntaş' email had been deleted from his Gmail platform two-and-a-half hours after the assassination, by which point Altıntaş had been shot dead by police. In March 2017 Google told the Turkish prosecutors requesting the emails that all of Altıntaş' emails had been irrecoverably deleted.

Associated Press photographer Burhan Ozbilici was at the exhibition when the assassination occurred, and he reflexively took photos of the gunman, which were described as "iconic" and "[the] most powerful and shocking documentary photos of this year". The photo would later win the World Press Photo of the Year award.

Reactions 

Many governments and heads of state condemned the attack and offered condolences to the family of Karlov and other victims of the shooting, as well as to the Russian people.

While ISIS has not claimed responsibility for the assassination, it has been celebrated by its supporters. The Islamist Jaish al-Fatah coalition, which includes the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front), claimed responsibility for the assassination, according to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Youm Al-Sabea.

A Qatari journalist, Elham Badar, said the shooting was a "human" response to "Russian barbarism" in Aleppo and elsewhere in the conflict. New York Daily News columnist Gersh Kuntzman attracted criticism when he compared Karlov's murder to the assassination of Nazi German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Jewish student Herschel Grynszpan, saying "justice has been served."

A woman on the board of Al Jazeera said that she believes the murder of Andrey Karlov was justified because of the bloodshed to which Russia has contributed in the Syrian civil war.

Turkish reaction 
In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a video message that "Turkey-Russia relations are vital for the region and those who aimed to harm ties were not going to achieve their goals", after having spoken to Russian president Vladimir Putin, adding that they "both agreed the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Ankara by a gunman was an act of provocation by those looking to harm relations of our countries." The Turkish Foreign Ministry pledged to spare no effort to not let "this attack cast a shadow on the Turkish-Russian friendship." Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced that the street in which the Russian embassy is located would be named after the ambassador.

Turkey temporarily banned access to Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp after the attack. A week later, it also banned broadcasting images of the attack while an investigation was underway.

Russian reaction 
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: "Terrorism will not pass. We will fight it decisively." President Vladimir Putin stated he believes "a crime has been committed and it was without doubt a provocation aimed at spoiling the normalization of Russo-Turkish relations and spoiling the Syrian peace process which is being actively pushed by Russia, Turkey, Iran and others". He also ordered heightening of security measures at Russian embassies worldwide, and stated that "we need to know who guided the hand of the murderer".

References 

2016 in international relations
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2010s crimes in Ankara
2016 murders in Turkey
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Deaths by person in Asia
December 2016 crimes in Asia
December 2016 events in Turkey
Diplomatic incidents
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Gülen movement
Russia–Turkey relations
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Terrorist incidents in Turkey in 2016
2016 mass shootings in Asia
Mass shootings in Turkey
안드레이 카를로프 암살 사건은 2016년 12월 19일 터키 주재 러시아 대사 안드레이 카를로프(Андре́й Генна́дьевич Ка́рлов)가 터키 앙카라의 한 미술관에서 총격을 받고 숨진 사건이다.

사건경과 
카를로프는 '터키인의 눈으로 본 러시아' 전시의 개막식에서 축사를 하던 중, 경호원을 위장해 뒤에서 접근한 암살범의 권총을 여러발 등에 맞고 중상을 입어 병원으로 옮겨졌으나, 치료를 받던 가운데 사망하였다.

암살범은 비번인 터키 경찰특공대 소속 메블뤼트 메르트 알튼타시(22)로서, 경찰특공대와 대치하다가 사살되었다.

암살범은 카를로프의 등 뒤에서 권총을 8발이나 발사했다. 쓰러져 이미 사망한 카를로프에게 확인사살까지 했다. 총격전 과정에서 터키 경찰특공대 3명이 부상을 입었다.

암살자 
범인은 비번 중인 터키 경찰관으로 알려졌으며, 범행 중 "알라후 아크바르, 알라후 아크바르. 알레포를 잊지마라. 시리아를 잊지마라."라고 외쳐, 러시아의 시리아 내전 개입과 알레포 전투에서의 러시아군의 공습에 대한 보복으로 러시아 대사를 암살했을 가능성이 대두되었다.

터키 내무부에 따르면 저격범은 메블뤼트 메르트 알튼타시(22)라는 이름의 터키 경찰관으로 특수부대에 속해 있었던 것으로 알려졌다.

분석 
러시아의 현직 대사가 주재국에서 피살되기는 1927년 폴란드 주재 소련 대사인 표트르 보이코프 이후 89년만이다.

시리아 내전 
현재 5년 넘게 진행중인 시리아 내전에서, 터키는 미국과 함께 시리아 반군을 지원했고, 러시아는 시리아 정부군을 지원하고 있다. 이번 암살을 저지른 터키 경찰특공대 청년은, 암살직후, 시리아 내전에서 러시아군의 시리아 민간인 학살을 항의하는 소리를 질렀다.

암살 사건 며칠 전에, 장기간의 교전으로 막대한 민간인들이 살해된 알레포 전투에서, 러시아와 시리아 정부군이 승리해 알레포를 탈환하는데 성공했다. 터키와 미국이 지원하는 시리아 반군은 알레포를 빼앗겼다.

제3차 세계 대전 우려 

일부에서는 제1차 세계 대전을 촉발한 사라예보 사건을 우려하고 있다. 러시아의 지원을 받던 세르비아의 민족주의 청년이 오스트리아 황태자의 부부를 권총 살해한 사라예보 사건 직후, 황태자의 부부를 잃은 오스트리아는 독일과 동맹외교 등 전면전 준비를 한 달 동안 하고나서, 세르비아에 48시간 시한의 수용 불가능한 조치를 요구하며, 이를 이행하지 않았다면서 세르비아를 전면 침공했다.

러시아 흑해 함대 사령부가 위치한 세바스토폴에서 이번 암살이 발생한 터키 수도 앙카라까지는 직선으로 525 km 거리밖에 되지 않는다. 러시아와 터키는 흑해를 끼고 마주보고 있다.

이번 테러를 당한 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령은 터키에 군사보복을 하는 방안을 검토했다.

푸틴 대통령은 레제프 타이이프 에르도안 대통령과 전화통화를 갖고 암살 사건의 진상을 규명하기 위해 러시아 조사관들의 터키 파견에 대한 동의를 얻어내고 이들의 파견을 지시했다. 푸틴 대통령은 "우리는 킬러를 지휘한 자가 누구인지 알아내야 한다"고 말했다. 원래 타국의 수사관이 외국에서 대대적인 수사를 하는 것은 국제법상 내정간섭금지원칙 위반이 되지만, 당해국 국가원수가 동의하면 괜찮다.

러시아-튀르크 전쟁 
이번 테러로 러시아-튀르크 전쟁 (1877년-1878년)이 재조명 받고 있다. 1877년 4월 24일 러시아가 터키에 선전포고를 하면서 전쟁이 발발했고, 이후 7월까지 러시아의 일방적인 승리가 이어지며 터키는 붕괴 직전까지 갔다.

최근 터키와 러시아의 관계 악화 연표 
 2016년 11월 24일 - 터키 공군 F-16 전투기 2대가 시리아 상공의 러시아 공군 Su-24 전투기를 격추했다. 푸틴은 이날 요르단 국왕 압둘라 2세를 만난 자리에서 "등에 칼을 꽂는 행위"라며 터키를 "테러리스트의 공범"이라 비난했다.
 2016년 11월 30일 - 푸틴은 파리의 기자회견에서 터키가 극단주의 수니파 무장단체 이슬람 국가(IS)로부터 시리아에서 생산된 석유를 사들이고 있으며, 석유 공급선을 보호하려고 터키가 러시아 전투기를 공격한 것이라고 비난했다.
 2016년 12월 19일 - 터키 주재 러시아 대사 안드레이 카를로프가 터키 수도 앙카라의 한 미술관에서 현직 터키 경찰특공대 요원의 권총 8발을 맞고 쓰러진 후, 확인사살 1발을 맞고 현장에서 즉사했다. 터키는 개인의 소행이라고 발뺌했다.
 2016년 12월 25일 - 러시아 국방부 소속 Tu-154 수송기가 러시아에서 출발해 시리아로 향하던 중 추락했다. 크리스마스는 러시아의 명절이지만, 이슬람교에서는 그렇지 않다. 러시아에서 시리아로 가려면 터키를 지나야 한다. 시리아 내전에서 러시아는 시아파인 시리아 정부를 지원중이고, 수니파 국가인 터키는 수니파인 시리아 반군을 지원중이다.

같이 보기 
 흑해 함대
 주한 러시아 대사관
 주조 러시아 대사관

각주 

12월 19일
2016년 12월
2016년 튀르키예
2016년 테러 사건
튀르키예의 살인 사건
앙카라의 테러 사건
러시아-튀르키예 관계
튀르키예의 암살 사건
2016년 살인 사건