Man who assassinated Russian Ambassador to Turkey was one of the police on guard

On Monday, 22-year-old Mevlüt Mert Altintaş shot dead the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, while the ambassador was giving a speech at an exhibition in the Turkish capital, Ankara.

Photos emerging from the scene shows that Karlov’s attacker was standing right behind him all through the period Karlov gave his speech. He was one of the police men assigned to guard him.


Altintaş, until last night, was a member of the Ankara Police department’s riot unit and had been trusted to guard the ambassador, but he did the exact opposite.

After the attack, Altintaş was heard saying ‘Allahu Akbar’ and shouted something else in Arabic which translates in English to mean; “We've made an oath to Muhammad to die in martyrdom ... [It is] a revenge for Syria and Aleppo”