Assassination of Andrey Karlov

Editor's Note: This entry contains images and videos of disturbing nature; viewer discretion advised.

Overview

Andrey Karlov was a Russian diplomat who served as the ambassador to North Korea and Turkey on behalf of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In late December 2016, Karlov was assassinated while giving a speech at an art gallery in Ankara, Turkey by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş in protest of Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War. Following the shooting, various photos and videos of the incident were widely circulated online, spawning numerous photoshops of a picture of Altıntaş standing over Karlov’s body.

Background

On December 19th, 2016, Karlov was delivering a speech at an art exhibition in Ankara, Turkey when he was ambushed and shot in the back by an armed assailant, later identified as off-duty Turkish police officer Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, who proceeded to stand over Karlov’s body while holding a gun and shouted “Allahu Akbar” and “Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria!” Following a 15-minute shootout, Altıntaş was killed by Turkish security forces. Karlov was then rushed to a hospital, but died from his injuries. That same day, a video of the incident was uploaded to LiveLeak (shown below).

Developments

That day, Russian president Vladimir Putin stated that the assassination was "an attempt to spoil relations between Russia and Turkey", and the only response is to "step up the fight against terrorism".^[3]

Photographs

Also on December 19th, the Associated Press^[6] published several photographs of Altıntaş standing over Karlov's body taken by photographer Burhan Ozbilici (shown below). That day, Ozbilici's photo of Altıntaş pointing his finger in the air reached the front page of the /r/NewsPorn^[7] subreddit.

Meanwhile, a thread about the shooting was submitted to 4chan's /pol/ (politically incorrect) board, where many users posted photoshopped variations of Ozbilici's photo (shown below).^[5] The following day, another photoshop thread was launched on /pol/.^[4]

Also on December 20th, another photograph of the incident was submitted to the /r/AccidentalRenaissance^[8] subreddit, where it received over 21,000 votes (80% upvoted) and 900 comments with 24 hours (shown below).

Search Interest

External References