During the meeting with Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Director of the SVR Sergey Naryshkin and the head of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov, President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences in connection with death of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov and instructed to submit a diplomat for the state award.
This told the press Secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov.
“Putin expressed his deep condolences to the families of Charles, whom he knew personally. The President instructed to submit a diplomat to the state award and to perpetuate his memory” — quoted Peskov RIA Novosti.
Andrew Charles was killed in the opening of the photo exhibition “Russia through the eyes of a traveler: from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka” in the modern art center in Ankara. The exhibition was organized by joint efforts of the Russian Embassy in Ankara and the municipality of the district Chancy in the capital of Turkey. Charles gave a speech from the podium, when the offender shot him in the back.
The interior Minister of Turkey, Suleyman Soylu said that the assailant had previously been a police officer and served in the special unit of the Ankara police, was named mevlüt MERT Altıntaş. At the time of the attack he was not on duty. After the murder of Ambassador 22-year-old attacker shouted slogans about Aleppo and Syria and fired several shots into the hall, three people were injured. The gunman was killed by soldiers of the special forces arrived.
The Ambassador provided medical care at the scene, however from the received wounds he died. The official representative of Russian foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said that Russia classifies the incident as a terrorist act. According to the mayor of Ankara, Ibrahim Gökçek, the murder of the Ambassador aimed at the deterioration of relations between Russia and Turkey.
