Burhan Kuzu, an advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Justice and Development Party (AKP) İstanbul deputy, questioned why the Russian Embassy in Ankara had not assigned a private Russian guard for Ambassador Andrei Karlov, who was killed by a Turkish police officer while giving a speech at an Ankara art gallery on Monday.
Speaking during a TV show following the assassination of the Russian ambassador, Kuzu said the Russian Embassy in Ankara should have provided Karlov Russian security guards in the same way that Turkey provides guards to all its envoys abroad.
“Why doesn’t the Russian Embassy have any Russian security guards? I don’t understand. OK, we [Turkish authorities] are lax [on security issues]. That’s another issue. However, as we understand it, there were no [Russian guards inside],” he said.
A police officer, Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, born in 1994 in Turkey’s western province of Aydın, gunned down Karlov as he gave a speech at an Ankara art gallery on Monday.
The gunman, who was serving in the Special Forces department in Ankara, reportedly shouted “Only death can take me from here” as he protested Russian involvement in Aleppo with slogans in both Turkish and Arabic. He vowed revenge on “all who have a part in the oppression,” in reference to Syria.