Photographer recounts brutal slaying of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey in graphic detail

WARNING: Distressing content

A photographer who attended the exhibition where Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was assassinated has recounted the moments of chaos in the lead up to the brutal murder.

“The event was routine enough, the opening of an exhibit of photographs of Russia, so when a man on stage pulled out a gun I was stunned and thought it was a theatrical flourish,” Burhan Ozbilici began.

“Instead, it was a coolly calculated assassination, unfolding in front of me and others who scrambled, terrified, for cover as the trim man with short hair gunned down the Russian ambassador,” Ozbilici continues.

What occurred immediately following the shooting has been described as “pandemonium” by the photographer.

“People screamed, hid behind columns and under tables and lay on the floor. I was afraid and confused, but found partial cover behind a wall and did my job: taking photographs,” Ozbilici wrote.

The attacker, who brutally shot and killed the ambassador, was later identified as an off duty police officer.

The gunman, Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, shot and killed 62-year-old Ambassador Andrey Karlov, while he was giving a speech.

During the attack Altintas shouted: "Don't forget Aleppo", in a shocking rampage Moscow has now described as a "terrorist act".

The Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the shooter used his police ID to enter the gallery with a gun.

Altintas was later "neutralised" at the scene according to local authorities.

He had been serving in Ankara's riot police unit for the past two-and-a-half years.

According to the Associated Press the shooter's family home in the western province of Aydin was searched and his mother, father and sister were later detained.

Altintas' house in Ankara has also been raided and his roommate, also a riot police officer, was detained, the Associated Press has reported.

Ambassador Karlov was giving a speech at the Cagdas Sanatlar Merkezi when he was shot at close range.

The shooting comes after days of protests in Turkey over Russia's role in Syria.

The attack

Dramatic footage captured the gunman - dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and tie - shoot Mr Karlov.

Altintas was filmed standing behind the ambassador as he is speaking and then walking around waving his gun and pointing aggressively into the air.

Mr Karlov was several minutes into a speech when the gunman shouted: "Allah Akbar! Do not forget Aleppo!".

He then spoke in Arabic about pledging allegiance to jihad.

Altintas then switched to Turkish, shouting: "Don't forget about Syria, don't forget about Aleppo. All those who participate in this tyranny will be held accountable".

The gunman had been fatally shot during a police operation inside the centre after a 15 minute shootout.

"Today in Ankara as a result of an attack the Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov received wounds that he died from," a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in televised comments.

Rogue policeman

Ankara mayor Melih Gokcek speculated on his official Twitter account that the policeman may be linked to the group of exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for the July coup aimed at toppling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It is not yet clear whether the assassin was acting alone and no group has claimed responsibility.

But it will add further to jitters in Turkey, which has been rocked by a wave of deadly bomb attacks carried out by Islamic State jihadists or Kurdish militants.

The attempted coup has led to a massive crackdown on so-called Gulenists and opponents of the increasingly authoritarian president.

‘The timing’

The shooting came on the eve of a crucial meeting between the Turkish, Russian and Iranian foreign ministers on the Syrian conflict.

And at the exact moment of the attack, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was on a plane flying to Moscow for Tuesday's tripartite talks.

Moscow and Ankara remain on opposite sides of the conflict - with Ankara backing rebels trying to topple Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad.

Protesters in Turkey have held Moscow responsible for rights violations in war-wracked Aleppo, with thousands massing outside the Russian consulate in Istanbul.

Diplomatic relations between Ankara and Moscow sank to their worst levels since the Cold War in November last year when a Turkish jet shot down a Russian war plane over Syria.

But relations have since warmed, with intense contacts in recent days that led to a deal for evacuations from Aleppo.

And both sides vowed that Monday's assassination would not harm ties, with Erdogan swiftly calling President Vladimir Putin.

"We will not allow this attack to cast a shadow on Turkey-Russia relations," the Turkish foreign ministry said.

"The crime that was committed is without doubt a provocation aimed at disrupting the normalisation of Russian-Turkish relations and disrupting the peace process in Syria," Putin said.

Who was Karlov?

The slain ambassador was a veteran career diplomat who helped weather rocky ties between Moscow and Ankara.

He was appointed to Ankara in 2013 at a time when the two countries were pushing to boost trade ties despite deep differences over the conflict in Syria.

Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described his killing as a "tragic day in the history of our country and our diplomatic service".

Before serving in Ankara, Mr Karlov spent a large chunk of his career - which stretched back to the Soviet period - working on the volatile Korean peninsula.

The married father-of-one, who spoke Korean and English, served in the Russian embassies in both North and South Korea, before later returning to Pyongyang as Moscow's ambassador to the isolated Stalinist state from 2001-2006.

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