Frightening news out of Turkey today, as Andrey Karlov, Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, was assassinated in what appears to be an attack motivated by Russia’s military presence in Syria.
A photo taken moments after the attack began circulating on social media this afternoon.
The image a wounded Karlov lying on the floor, while his unidentified assailant addresses onlookers:
“Allahu akbar (God is great),” the man reportedly shouted.
Witnesses say he proceeded to rave about the motivations behind his attack, chanting:
“Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria! Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria!”
Insiders report that Karlov died shortly after the attack.
The shooter, who opened fire at an event to celebrate the unveiling of an art exhibit, wounded at least three other people.
He was later killed by police.
The shooting comes on the heels of the Assad regimes victory over rebel forces in Aleppo.
The fate of the residents of Syria’s second-most populous city remains unclear, but Secretary of State John Kerry has described the situation in Aleppo as the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.
While the shooter made his anger over the fall of Aleppo clear, he was likely motivated by a number of factors involving the complex relationship between the Turkish and Russian governments.
Relations between Turkey and Russia were badly damaged in November of 2015, when Turkish forces shot a Russian warplane out of the sky near the Syrian border.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered an olive branch to Vladimir Putin by writing an open letter of apoloigy to the family of the pilot of the downed plane.
As a result, when Erdogan quelled a military coup in July, Putin was among the first world leaders to call and offer support.
Putin’s partnership with the murderous Assad regime has long been a source of international scandal, and based on his comments, it seems that the shooter was outraged over Erdogan’s renewed relationship with Putin and tertiary connection to the massacres in Aleppo.
We’ll have further updates on this story as more information becomes available.