Ankara: Increased security measures around the Russian Embassy

Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek stated that the fatal attack on Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov today represents an attempt to disrupt relations between Russia and Turkey.

Gokcek told reporters in front of the hospital where the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was taken after being shot at the opening of the photo exhibition "Russia through the eyes of Turks" in an Ankara gallery, where he later died, according to world media, reports Patria.

Turkish authorities, after the attack carried out by an attacker who was killed in the well-known gallery, have increased security around the Russian embassy in the Turkish capital. The attacker was a Turkish police officer with whose identification he entered the exhibition. During the attack, he shouted: Do not forget Aleppo, do not forget Syria.

Sputnik points out that the attack occurred just one day before the announced trip of the head of Turkish diplomacy, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to Moscow, where he was supposed to discuss Syria with his Russian and Iranian counterparts.

The attack took place after several days of protests in Turkey due to Russia's role in Syria, with demonstrators accusing Moscow of human rights violations in Aleppo, although Moscow and Ankara are now closely cooperating in the evacuation of citizens from that Syrian city, AFP reports.

Media assess that the attack on the Russian ambassador in Ankara represents one of the most serious forms of "spillover" of the Syrian conflict into Turkey, recalling that relations between Moscow and Ankara have long been strained due to the Syrian conflict, in which they support opposing sides.

Official Moscow called the attack on Ambassador Karlov a terrorist act.