President Vladimir Putin on Monday called the killing of Russia\u2019s ambassador in Turkey a \u201cprovocation\u201d aimed at sabotaging warming ties between Moscow and Ankara and efforts to resolve the conflict in Syria.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe crime that was committed is without doubt a provocation aimed at disrupting the normalization of Russian-Turkish relations and disrupting the peace process in Syria that is being actively advanced by Russia, Turkey and Iran,\u201d Putin said in televised comments.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere can be only one answer to this \u2014 stepping up the fight against terrorism, and the bandits will feel this,\u201d he said at a meeting with Russia\u2019s foreign minister and the heads of the overseas and domestic intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n
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The Kremlin strongman said that Moscow was sending investigators to Ankara to probe the killing after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave the green light in a phone call.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe have to know who directed the hand of the killer,\u201d Putin said.<\/p>\n
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Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov was shot dead Monday at an art exhibition opening in Ankara by a Turkish policeman crying \u201cAleppo\u201d and \u201cAllahu Akbar,\u201d in what Moscow termed a \u201cterrorist act.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The incident came after days of protests in Turkey over Russia\u2019s role in Syria, although Moscow and Ankara are now working closely together to evacuate citizens from the battered city of Aleppo.<\/p>\n
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The foreign and defense ministers from Russia, Turkey and Iran are set to meet Tuesday in Moscow for key talks on Syria.<\/p>\n
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Turkey and Russia saw relations plunge last year when a Turkish jet shot down a Russian war plane over Syria.<\/p>\n
The two countries stand on opposite sides of the Syria conflict with Ankara backing rebels trying to topple Moscow ally President Bashar Assad.<\/p>\n
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But Putin and Erdogan have managed to mend ties since patching up their bitter seven-month dispute over the jet downing earlier this year.<\/p>\n
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Dramatic television footage showed the man \u2014 dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and tie \u2014 waving a gun and gesturing in the air at the Ankara exhibition hall where the veteran diplomat was opening a show of Russian photographs.<\/p>\n
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The state-run Anadolu news agency said the gunman had been \u201cneutralized\u201d in a police operation inside the hall after 15 minutes of clashes.<\/p>\n
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\u201cToday in Ankara as a result of an attack the Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov received wounds that he died from,\u201d Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in televised comments.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe qualify what happened as a terrorist act,\u201d she added. \u201cThe murderers will be punished.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday this issue will be raised at the UN Security Council. Terrorism will not win out,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
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The mayor of Ankara Melih Gokcek identified the attacker as a Turkish policeman. The Yeni Safak daily said on its website that the attacker \u2014 named as M.M.A. \u2014 worked with anti-riot police in Ankara.<\/p>\n
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The United States condemned the attack, while British ambassador Richard Moore paid tribute to a \u201cquietly spoken, hospitable professional.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Erdogan phoned Putin to brief him about the attack, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said. The shooting took place at the Cagdas Sanatlar Merkezi, a major art exhibition hall in the Cankaya district of Ankara where most foreign embassies are located including Russia\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt happened during the opening of an exhibition,\u201d Hurriyet correspondent Hasim Kilic, who was at the scene, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the ambassador was delivering a speech, a tall man wearing a suit, fired into the air first and then took aim at the ambassador,\u201d said Kilic.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe said something about Aleppo and \u2018revenge\u2019. He ordered the civilians to leave the room. When people were fleeing, he fired again,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
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Images showed the ambassador standing up to speak at a lectern at the opening of an photo exhibition called \u201cRussia from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka\u201d showing images from Russia\u2019s far west to its far east.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Vladimir Putin on Monday called the killing of Russia’s ambassador in Turkey a “provocation” aimed at sabotaging warming ties between Moscow and Ankara and efforts to resolve the conflict in Syria. “The crime that was committed is without doubt a provocation aimed at disrupting the normalization of Russian-Turkish relations and disrupting the peace process in Syria that is being actively advanced by Russia, Turkey and Iran,” Putin said in televised comments. “There can be only one answer to this — stepping up the fight against terrorism, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4786,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785\/revisions\/4786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}