Turkey nabs six over killing of Russia envoy
Turkey has arrested six people in connection with the assassination earlier of Russia’s ambassador to the country.
An off-duty police officer in civilian clothing shot down Andrey Karlov, the Russian envoy, as he was inaugurating a photo exhibition in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Monday.
On Tuesday, the state-run Anadolu agency said the attacker’s mother, father, sister and two other relatives were being held in the western province of Aydin, while his flatmate in Ankara had also been detained.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said on Tuesday that Russian investigators had flown to Turkey earlier in the day to help probe the killing as per a mutual decision taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Eighteen people will work in the group. The group will act in Turkey within the framework of the investigation into the murder,” Peskov said.
After carrying out the murder, the assailant went on a rant caught on camera, which saw him bawling, “Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria!”
However, a senior Turkish security official has said there are “very strong signs” that the gunman belonged to the network of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
The Turkish establishment accuses Gulen, Erdogan’s ally-turned-archfoe, of orchestrating an abortive July coup.
(Published 2016/12/20 at 2:40 pm)
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