A shooting took place on video on the night of Dec 19th, 2016 in Ankara, Turkey. Ankara is the capital of Turkey not Istanbul. The shooting took place at an art gallery of all places. The shocked world is grieving. Andrey Karlov, the Russian Ambassador to Turkey was giving a speech for a photo exhibition to a small group of visitors. Karlov was shot in the back while his speech was being recorded via camera and live stream on twitter. The recorders were unaware that in a few minutes the gunman would shoot a hail of gunfire at the ambassador and take over the speaker's microphones. Karlov is the only person who was killed in the shocking attack. In sad irony, the gunman was 22 year old Turkish riot police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas which made it easier for him to enter the otherwise heavily guarded speech. The gunman was said to shout Allah Akbar and don't forget Aleppo. Than started screaming about Syria and Turkey in Turkish Not Arabic. His scream was directed towards the camera and the horrified audience huddled in the corner. The shooting had absolutely nothing to do with religion. It appears to be more politically motived as all shootings and assassinations are. The shooting has been deemed an assassination. It is wasn't coincidence. The policeman was aware that the ambassador was at the podium and specifically targeted him without shooting the entire crowd. He also kept abreast of news on Russia's involvement in Syria. The gunman was shot dead by Turkish special forces. Just a week prior in Istanbul, there was protest against Russian involvement in Syria.
The killings of ambassadors while on duty is still rare despite the deaths of Karlov and U.S. Ambassador Stevens in Libya in 2012. Curiously, the now dead gunman was one of thousands of former police officers who were accused as taking part in the coup and fired en mass from their jobs following the failed July coup against Erdogan.Karlov
Russia and Turkey have been rebuilding their relationship and cooperation back up following the downing of two Russian jets by Turkush pilot in November in 2016.
The former British ambassador to Syria made a crucial point during an interview that the gunman could've targeted the ambassador due to the negative press on Russia and the over exaggerated and false reports about genocide and ethnic cleansing in Aleppo by mainstream news networks (radio and television) both in Turkey and internationally.
Afrisynergy News Russian Ambassador to Turkey Assassinated
Aleppo was liberated from ISIS and the ongoing siege of Aleppo has slowly come to an end. Civilians are cautiously returning home and are thanking the Syrian government for ending the brutal siege and street battles around the city. Contrary to pundits and journalists, Russia has been helping Syria to fight against ISIS, its Takfiri cousins and moderate rebels some of who are no different than Al Qaeda. The Free Syrian Army has all but disappeared from news reports coming from Syria. Among rebel groups fighting in Aleppo was al Nusra Front. Most of Aleppo has transformed literally into skeletal shell of its former self. The same reports of genocide and ethnic cleansing, both terms are used for nearly every massare or killings in Syria was used nonstop to describe the Libyan government's use of force against civilians in Benghazi. When real ethnic cleansing happened in Taraghewa, a black Libyan town south of Misrata, the media and human rights activists who were crying for Benghazi were nowhere to be found. The same terms were used during the Iraq War and Yugoslav wars (legitimately).
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