The cop who fatally shot the Russian ambassador to Turkey refused to pass through a metal detector but was still allowed to enter the art exhibit where he unleashed his bloodbath, according to a new report.
Mevlut Mert Altintas was given permission to bypass the X-ray machine after he flashed his police ID to security officers at the door of the venue in the Turkish capital of Ankara, the Hurriyet Daily News reported Tuesday.
Altintaş had taken a leave of absence from the police department Dec. 19.
The killer plotted Monday’s attack on Russian Ambassdor Andrey Karlov from a hotel room near the exhibition hall, the newspaper said.
Police cordoned off his room, No. 214, after the shooting, the Anadolu Agency reported.
A senior government official told the AP on Tuesday that the killing was “fully professional, not a one-man action.” Six people have been detained for questioning.
Probers were trying to determine whether the killing was motivated by the annihilation of eastern Aleppo or an attempt to ruin Turkey’s already shaky relationship with Russia, the BBC said.
Russian media on Tuesday responded with outrage to the senseless slaying, calling Altintas a coward and promising that his actions would not derail Moscow’s ties with Turkey.
“The murderer was afraid to look him in the eye,” said the banner front-page headline in the pro-Kremlin paper Izvestiya, above a dramatic picture of Karlov with his killer looming behind, according to the Daily Mail.
“They did not shoot at Karlov. They shot at Russia,” Russian Sen. Konstantin Kosachev said in comments published alongside.
Altintas, 22, was born in the sleepy conservative Turkish town of Soke and had attended police college in the coastal city of Izmir.
State media said they were widening the probe into the killing to include relatives of the off-duty policeman, who shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo!” as he gunned the envoy down.
Both Turkey and Russia cast Monday’s attack, which occurred at an art gallery in the capital Ankara, as an attempt to undermine a recent thawing of ties that have been strained by Syria’s civil war, where they back opposing sides.
The civil war, which has killed more than 300,000 people and created a power vacuum exploited by Islamic State, reached a potential turning point last week when Syrian forces ended rebel resistance in the northern city of Aleppo.
Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, supported that advance with air strikes.
Altintas, who shouted slogans associated with Islamist militancy after shooting ambassador Andrey Karlov, was killed minutes later by members of Turkey’s special forces.
His mother, father, sister and two other relatives were held in the western province of Aydin, while his roommate in Ankara was also detained, the state-run Anadolu agency said.
One senior Turkish security official said investigators were focusing on whether Altintas had links to the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for a failed July coup. Gulen has denied responsibility for the coup and Monday’s attack and has condemned both events.
The slogans that Altintas shouted, which were captured on video and circulated widely on social media, suggested he was aligned to a radical Islamist ideology, rather than that of Gulen, who preaches a message of interfaith dialogue.
“Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria! You will not be able to feel safe for as long as our districts are not safe! Only death can take me from here!” he shouted in Turkish.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Monday he and Russia’s Vladimir Putin had agreed in a telephone call that their cooperation in fighting terrorism should be even stronger after the killing.
Putin said it was aimed at derailing Russia’s attempts to find, with Iran and Turkey, a solution for the Syria crisis.
The countries’ foreign ministers were meeting Tuesday.
With Post Wires