US President-elect Donald Trump condemned the assassination of Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, on Monday, saying the killing was carried out by a “radical Islamic terrorist” and violated “all rules of civilized order.”
In a statement on Monday, Trump offered condolences to the family of Karlov, who was shot down by a police officer while attending an event at an art gallery in Ankara.
In a tweet from his personal Twitter account on Monday, Trump said “Today there were terror attacks in Turkey, Switzerland and Germany — and it is only getting worse. The civilized world must change thinking! ”
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 against “all who have a part in the oppression,” in reference to Syria.