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Video Shows Russia's Ambassador To Turkey Being Assassinated Inside An Art Gallery

"Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!"

Cover image via Burhan Ozbilici/Associated Press

Russia's Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey G. Karlov, was assassinated by a lone gunman a few hours ago inside an art gallery in Ankara, the Turkish Capital, according to Russia's foreign ministry

Ambassador Andrey G. Karlov before he was shot dead.

Image via Burhan Ozbilici / AP via BuzzFeed

Andrey G. Karlov, who was speaking at a photo exhibition event in the Contemporary Arts Center in the Cankaya area of Ankara, was shot from behind by a Turkish off-duty policeman, according to multiple accounts including one from The Associated Press (AP), which cited one of its photographers, who was at the scene.

The gunman, after the shooting of the Russian ambassador.

Image via Yavuz Alatan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images via NYT

The lone Turkish gunman reportedly shouted "God is great!" and "don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria!", according to The NYT

The unnamed gunman gestures after shooting the Russian ambassador.

Image via Burhan Ozbilici/Associated Press

An Associated Press photographer at the scene said the gunman wore a suit and tie and shouted "Allahu Akhbar" as he fired "at least eight shots."

The gunman also yelled: "Stand back! Stand back! Only death will take me out of here. Anyone who has a role in this oppression will die one by one."

The gunman was killed after a shootout with Turkish Special Forces

The attack, which might have been the first since Pyotr Voykov, a Soviet ambassador to Poland, was shot to death in Warsaw in 1927, was a rare instance of an assassination of any Russian envoy.

Before being killed, the gunman also wounded at least three others in the assault.

People in the gallery react after the ambassador was shot.

Image via Burhan Ozbilici / AP via BuzzFeed

This video, posted on Twitter, shows Ambassador Karlov falling as he was shot from behind. Eight bullets are said to have been fired.


According to NPR's Peter Kenyon, the attack comes just a day before Turkey's foreign minister was to travel to Moscow for talks on Syria. Those talks will go ahead despite the murder of Karlov.

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