Russia’s ambassador to Turkey shot dead in art gallery

Ambassador Andrei Karlov was attending an art gallery in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, when a gunman opened fire. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Karlov died.

“Today in Ankara as a result of an attack, the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Turkey, Andrey Gennadyevich Karlov, received a wound from which he died,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “We regard this as a terrorist act.”

The shooter shouted “Allahu akbar” according to the Associated Press, which had a photographer on the scene for the event. The gunman was shot dead by Turkish police, according to a Turkish outlet NTV.

“Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria!” the gunman also said, according to Reuters.

President-elect Trump on Monday evening released a statement about the assassination, saying: “Today we offer our condolences to the family and loved ones of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov, who was assassinated by a radical Islamic terrorist. The murder of an ambassador is a violation of all rules of civilized order and must be universally condemned.”

“We condemn this act of violence, whatever its source,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.”

“I condemn in the strongest terms the heinous attack on Ambassador Karlov tonight,” said John Bass, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

The State Department on Monday also advised citizens to avoid the area of the U.S. embassy in Ankara, citing the shooting.

The White House on Monday released a statement saying “thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of Ambassador Karlov and the other victims” and offering “condolences to the Russian people and government.”

“This heinous attack on a member of the diplomatic corps is unacceptable, and we stand united with Russia and Turkey in our determination to confront terrorism in all of its forms,” said National Security Council spokesman Ned Price.

The attack comes at a delicate time for Turkey and the region, which is wrestling with the humanitarian crises spawned by the Syrian civil war. Russia is backing Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in his fight against U.S.-backed rebels and jihadists who have been trying to overthrow him since 2011. Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet last year that violated its airspace, but Russian President Vladimir Putin Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have warmed relations in recent months — a rapprochement that was accelerated by a failed coup attempt in Turkey that Erdogan’s government blamed on the United States.

Putin’s and Erdogan’s diplomacy culminated in Turkey cutting Secretary of State John Kerry and American diplomats out of negotiations over the possibility of a ceasefire in Syria. “We welcome any genuine effort to ease the suffering of the Syrian people, particularly in Aleppo, which has endured so much hardship in recent months,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said when he learned of the secret negotiations.

The Syrian conflict had already placed unusual strain on the American relationship with Turkey, a member of the NATO alliance, in part because the U.S. is working with an ethnic minority that Turkey despises. The Syrian Kurds are one of the most effective local fighting forces in the country, notably helping the United States recapture multiple towns held by ISIS terrorists.

But Turkey regards the Syrian Kurds as affiliates of the PKK, a group of Turkish Kurds that has been waging war against the Turkish government for years. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan doesn’t want the Syrian Kurds to control territory on the Turkish border that could become a haven for Kurdish separatists in either country.

Warning: The video contains graphic content.

The name of the ambassador was corrected from the first version of this story.