Assassination attempt on Andrei Gennadjewitsch Karlov

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Andrei Karlow , 2016

The Russian ambassador to Turkey , Andrei Gennadjewitsch Karlov , was killed in an Islamist attack in Ankara on December 19, 2016 .

background

In Turkey it had before the attack on Karlow protests outside the embassies of Iran and Russia because of their support for the offensive by the Syrian government forces against the rebel opposition in Syria's Aleppo given.

Sequence of events

The act took place at the opening of a photo exhibition in the Turkish capital Ankara. The opening of the exhibition took place in Çağdaş Sanatlar Merkezi , an exhibition hall in Ankara's Çankaya district, in which other embassies are located besides the Russian one.

While Andrei Karlow was giving a speech, the plainclothes policeman Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş fired several shots at him. Altıntaş used his service weapon for the deed. Since Karlow's speech was filmed, the attack was also documented on video. In the recordings, the later assassin was clearly visible behind Karlow even before the attack. After the shooting, the perpetrator shouted in Arabic “We are the ones who swear allegiance to the Prophet Mohammed and to jihad ”, “ Allahu akbar !” (“God is greatest”) and in Turkish: “Don't forget Syria. Do n't forget Aleppo . As long as the people there are not safe, you will not be safe. "

At least two other people were injured in the attack. The attacker was shot dead by the Turkish police about half an hour after the crime.

Perpetrator

The perpetrator is the 22-year-old Turk Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş , who had worked for two and a half years in a special police unit in Ankara and as a bodyguard for Turkish President Erdogans . In the course of the wave of purges following the failed coup attempt , Altıntaş is also said to have been sacked because he was accused of having connections with Gülen . However, he was reinstated due to lack of evidence.

Reactions

Russian President Vladimir Putin after the attack with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov , the head of the domestic intelligence service FSB Alexander Bortnikow and the head of the foreign intelligence service SWR Sergei Naryshkin

The Russian Foreign Ministry described the killing of Karlov as an act of terrorism . The UN Security Council sharply condemned the attack and called for the perpetrators and masterminds to be brought to justice.

President-elect Donald Trump said the murder of Karlov constituted a "violation of all rules of civilized order." The People's Republic of China called the attack a "barbaric act of terrorism." The governments of Turkey and Russia saw the attack as one Try to torpedo their approaching course.

The Russian government sent an investigative team to Ankara, consisting of 18 experts from the secret services, the police and the Foreign Ministry, to support the Turkish law enforcement authorities. The Russian Foreign Ministry warned against traveling to Turkey. According to Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the Turkish government wants to have a street in Ankara named after Karlow.

On January 19, 2017, arrest warrants were issued against two suspects accused of membership in the Gülen movement . According to the state news agency Anadolu , one of the two is a police officer.

On June 19, 2017 - six months after the attack - it was announced that Alexej Jerchow would succeed Karlow as ambassador.

Photographic documentation

In February 2017, a photo by Associated Press photographer Burhan Ozbilici (* 1955) was named Press Photo of the Year 2016. The photographer had already approached the diplomat shortly before the crime to take a picture of him from close range when the first shots were fired. The picture shows the well-dressed assassin, screaming, with a raised index finger, and, lying in the background, the lifeless body of Karlov. The report awarded by the jury also includes a picture of the unsuspecting Karlow with Altıntaş approaching from behind, a picture of the perpetrator with the weapon raised against the audience, as well as a photo of the exhibition visitors crouching in a corner in fear. The main image achieved an instant million-fold distribution on social media .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Russian ambassador shot dead in Ankara , on spiegel.de, accessed on December 19, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b c Russian ambassador died after the attack , on welt.de, accessed on December 19, 2016.
  3. ↑ Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov shot dead , on telegraph.co.uk, accessed December 19, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b c Russian ambassador killed in Ankara , on zeit.de, accessed on December 19, 2016.
  5. ↑ Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov shot dead in Ankara , on bbc.com, accessed December 19, 2016.
  6. ↑ Russian ambassador killed in attack in Ankara , on merkur.de, accessed on January 4, 2017.
  7. ↑ a b Russia speaks of terror after the attack on the ambassador , on spiegel.de, accessed on December 19, 2016.
  8. ↑ Ankara assassin was Erdogan's bodyguard , ORF of December 21, 2016
  9. ^ Ankara assassination attempt on Russian ambassador: Four theories of murder | STERN.de . In: stern.de . December 21, 2016 ( stern.de [accessed December 22, 2016]).
  10. ^ Horror after the attempt on the Russian ambassador . Wirtschaftswoche, December 20, 2016.
  11. ^ After the murder of diplomats: Kremlin sends investigators to Ankara . FAZ.net, December 20, 2016.
  12. ↑ After the murder of the ambassador, Russia warns against traveling to Turkey . Merkur.de, December 20, 2016.
  13. ↑ Two arrest warrants for the murder of the Russian ambassador
  14. ↑ Russia appoints new ambassador to Turkey
  15. ↑ The dead ambassador. Spiegel Online, February 13, 2017, accessed on the same day
  16. ↑ Burhan Ozbilici: World Press Photo 2017 . Ed .: David Campbell, Lars Boering, Stuart Franklin. Till Schaap Edition, Bern 2017, ISBN 978-3-03878-001-4 , pp. 6th f., 54-59 .