The New York Times is reporting:
Russia's ambassador to Turkey was assassinated at an Ankara art exhibit on Monday evening by a lone Turkish gunman shouting "God is great!" and "don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria!" in what Russia called a terrorist attack.
The gunman, who was described by Ankara's mayor as a policeman, also wounded at least three others in the assault, which was captured on Turkish video. Turkish officials said he was killed by other officers in a shootout.
"The attack comes at a bad time: Moscow and Ankara have only recently restored diplomatic ties after Turkey downed a Russian aircraft in November 2015," the Stratfor think-tank said.
"Though the attack will strain relations between the two countries, it is not likely to rupture them altogether."
[...] Tensions have escalated in recent weeks as Russian-backed Syrian forces have fought for control of the eastern part of Aleppo, triggering a stream of refugees.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday December 19 2016, @09:21PM
"Turkey's interior minister identified the gunman as 22-year-old Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, a member of the Ankara police department's riot unit who graduated from İzmir Rüştü Ünsal Police Academy in 2014. "
Apparently he used his police ID to bypass security.
http://www.businessinsider.com/russias-ambassador-to-turkey-has-reportedly-been-shot-in-ankara-2016-12
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday December 20 2016, @01:50PM
According to one source on the spot (not sure where I saw this by now), he WAS security; they were using off-duty local police.
Video and timeline:
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/12/19/russian-ambassador-turkey-shot-speech-ankara/ [breitbart.com]
====
His cries during the assassination have been translated, according to a report at Business Insider. At first, he shouted in Arabic: “We’ve made an oath to Mohammed to die in martyrdom, [it is] revenge for Syria and Aleppo.”
Altintas then switched to Turkish and shouted, “Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria… You won’t be safe. Only my dead body will leave here.”
====
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Tuesday December 20 2016, @02:43PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday December 20 2016, @03:55PM
Putin is no dummy. And probably has much more direct reports than any western news source.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday December 20 2016, @08:16PM
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/top-russian-diplomat-petr-polshikov-found-shot-dead-at-moscow-home-a3424511.html
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday December 20 2016, @09:25PM
Doubt it. From what I've heard it's coincidental.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday December 21 2016, @01:03AM
After Obama went and said this: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/15/obama-threatens-retaliation-against-russia-election-hacking/95501584/ they might be a bit more prone to conspiracy theories than before however.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday December 21 2016, @01:48AM
Yeah, that was just dumb. Hopefully Putin will remain patient and will just wait for the nonsense to leave office.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @09:35PM
One should know by now that meddling in the Mid. E. multiplies your headaches.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @09:54PM
They have "can-do" notions that don't work in the Middle East.
This is where a lawyer like Nixon or Obama is who we want running our foreign policy. Lawyers can be nuisances, but they're trained in studying all the nuances of a situation involving various interested parties and principles, and preparing a detailed plan to navigate those circumstances and communicating them in a persuasive manner.
The Russians seem impressively strong in Syria, but they also seemed strong in Afghanistan in the early '80s. The resistance is in it for the long hall. The Russians are going to lose, full stop. We shouldn't be in a hurry to align ourselves with what they are doing over there.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Sulla on Tuesday December 20 2016, @01:45AM
Of the two lawyers you mentioned one got us involved deeper in an endless war that he promised to end, cost us countless freedoms and took pride in trampling all over the constitution. The other was Richard M. Nixon.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @02:53AM
Yay, Conservatives! Boo Liberals!
Oh I meant Yay, Liberals! Boo Conservatives!
Ok, this is the kind of non-thinking that does not solve any problems.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday December 20 2016, @03:15PM
If you'd bothered to read the post, it was about lawyers, not partisanship.
Unless you can show us some other lawyers that got us embroiled in major wars. Wasn't Lincoln a lawyer? Oops, another Republican! (although not really the same Republican party)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1) by toddestan on Saturday December 24 2016, @01:03AM
I'd rather have someone from the military running our foreign policy, since they know more than anyone else the cost of bad foreign policy (sometimes put in place by lawyers like Nixon or Obama) and aren't going to put US soldiers in harms way unless absolutely necessary.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday December 19 2016, @09:55PM
Well, shit, barely more than a century after the fact, here comes another World War. I wonder how THIS one's gonna turn out?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by isostatic on Monday December 19 2016, @10:08PM
Every time something bad happens people on SN say the same thing.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Monday December 19 2016, @11:06PM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Tuesday December 20 2016, @12:56AM
I guess eventually they will be right, and they can bask in their fortune telling abilities for those split seconds before the blinding white light wipes all life off the planet.
If ever you needed the definition of a Pyrrhic victory, that would be it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @04:46AM
will be watching from our solar/wind/tidal powered autonomous seasteads out in international waters. Some of us will have a supply of foodstuffs, sheltered enclosures and fresh water sufficient to survive the fallout from such a world war.
The question is: which 'some' are you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @01:57AM
No blitzkrieg. Less lebensraum than a Nomad. Lame.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @10:15PM
wooden ships? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFxtlOU-hKI [youtube.com]
I found these berries, see?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @10:29PM
here comes another World War. I wonder how THIS one's gonna turn out?
Very badly, just like the others before it and all that will come after it.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday December 19 2016, @11:10PM
Well, shit, barely more than a century after the fact, here comes another World War.
I don't think we'll get an actual world war until multiple superpowers think they can win such a conflict. Instead it'll be more proxy fighting and economic/political maneuvering.
For example, one way a world war might be China exploiting a cyberwar vulnerability with the US military to conduct a surprise attack attempting to wipe out US forces in a particular region. There, the US would go in thinking it had the advantage because of technologically superior forces while China would go in thinking it had the advantage because of the vulnerability of US forces to cyberwar (and perhaps industrial and manpower advantages). Who actually wins, if anyone, would then be a matter for the history books.
But if most superpowers don't think they'll win such a conflict, they'll instead try other approaches which are the staple of the past Cold War.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @08:28AM
Who actually wins, if anyone, would then be a matter for the history books.
More likely, history stone tablets :/
(Score: 3, Informative) by tfried on Tuesday December 20 2016, @08:42AM
Just in case you were trying to make a serious comment in this, I'll point out the two main differences:
1. An ambassador is easier to replace, and more relevant to policy than a heir to the throne. Try again, if Medwedew gets assassinated on foreign territory.
2. In neither case is there any striking evidence of direct government involvement. So if this is to be used as justification for a strong-handed reaction, you need significant actors in favor of confrontation beforehand. This was clearly the case in Austria. Despite some divergent gaols, it does not appear to be the case in Russia, at all.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday December 20 2016, @06:28PM
By Cthulhu's beard, I hope you're right :( Everything's so brittle now...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @10:43PM
The moslems are at it yet again! http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38373867 [bbc.com]
Remember, it's a religion of peace. Though only eventually, once they kill off all those pesky infidels. Then they will have their peace.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @10:48PM
If you defame Islam or the prophet, such as drawing a cartoon, his followers will kill you in the name of god. If you don't say Islam is a religion of peace, you will be killed.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @11:09PM
The war has already started. It will not be fought on a battlefield with guns. They will wear the world down with their numbers, force migrate into countries, push everyone else out and kill those who oppose them.
Look at what happens to people in prison with a majority muslim population. They suddenly find religion. Then forget it once they can leave. Muslims know this. They use tactics to take over new areas seeping into the population until they control the area by sheer numbers.
WIPM is needed. By the time your country figures out that it should have never let the muslims in it is too late.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday December 20 2016, @01:07AM
Zomg! The same thing happened in Dearborn, MI! Run for the hills!
There's just one thing I'm confused about. How can WIPM [wipmgroup.com] help us?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @10:55PM
Does anybody know why it is so rare to see an actual shooting on video? This video (like pretty much every other one) shows the aftermath of the shooting, but not the actual shooting itself. I'd write it off as cultural sensitivity to death, but we see tons of it staged in TV and movies all the time.
Usually it's masked by a shaky hand camera (it's reasonable, given amateur filmings of police confrontations/etc), but this one seems like it would be pre-set.
Does anybody have any insight into this?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @11:28PM
The pictures of this event were absurd. The guy murdered someone and then had the trigger discipline to get his finger up so he didn't shoot anyone else by accident.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday December 20 2016, @01:53PM
Of course he did. He had the training; he was an off-duty cop.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @02:04PM
So, trained to murder selectively?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @11:37PM
Like the Islamic State doesn't have enough footage already without our help. These videos would be used by them for propaganda. There's no point in releasing it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @11:53PM
No amount of kill cams is gonna improve ISIS recruitment when their leaders are getting droned on their turf.
If there is footage, it should be released. Sensitivity to the family and worries about terrorist propaganda should take a back seat to the truth.
(Score: 3, Informative) by pe1rxq on Tuesday December 20 2016, @01:25AM
Why should it be released? Just because you want to see blood? You don't believe it is the 'truth' unless you get to see a man getting shot?
The truth won't be any different after you personally have seen the footage.
Why should they make it easy for random people on the internet to satisfy their bloodlust when they will get nothing usefull out of it?
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday December 20 2016, @08:53PM
Would you prefer they satisfy it in a more direct manner?
(Score: 2) by TGV on Tuesday December 20 2016, @08:39AM
This might not have been ISIS. The shooter explicitly mentions Aleppo, which is not ISIS territory.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @09:55AM
Yet ;)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @11:50PM
I'd say it's because even in the smartphone age, you still have to be in the right place at the right time. You can't just record all day unless you planned to and have spare battery power. I saw the photo of the guy's dead body. He may have been wandering and mingling around the gallery, not giving a speech. No reason to film his every movement, and when the action went down it probably happened in seconds. There may have been less press around since it was a "secure" event (attacker had the necessary ID).
The good news is that this could help explain why UFO videos suck so bad. Everyone is caught off guard, and the smartphones take a while to start recording and don't take great imagery.
I would love to have dedicated camera button(s) on my next smartphone. Depending on implementation, you could have it open the camera app or start recording immediately.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday December 20 2016, @03:18PM
The same reason they always catch the second kid who throws a punch on the playground. You hear the sound of the first thing, then start looking/filming.
The Zapruder film shows the actual shooting because he happened to be filming already.
Plus, y'know, not everybody (e.g. me) wants to see the gore. Maybe somebody has footage and it's just not being aired?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Monday December 19 2016, @11:39PM
The National Police was supposedly heavily infiltrated by the Gulen Movement. It's been used as a reason for dismissing/arresting many after the abortive coup attempt.
I suspect that if he didn't have any ties to the Gulen movement, ties will very quickly be fabrica... I mean discovered linking him to it.
It's just so much more convenient for the current Turkish government narrative. And probably easier for the Russians to handle as well.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday December 19 2016, @11:49PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Tuesday December 20 2016, @12:00AM
mayhaps this is obama's foolish threat come to life in 'retaliation' for non-existent russkie election 'hacking'...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @12:13AM
Yeah, you're completely naive. The hackers barely hid their Russian affiliation. The hacking and release of documents was done to favor Donald Trump.
Even if you don't care about the results, you shouldn't lie to yourself about what happened.
(Score: 1) by Arik on Tuesday December 20 2016, @01:02AM
C'mon all you have to do is read their press release with your bs detector turned on to know that's nonsense.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday December 20 2016, @01:42AM
Wait, your font failed.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @01:49AM
> I really doubt the Russians are going to buy it.
They don't have to. They know it was in response to their bombing of Aleppo. They aren't going to blame Erdogan because blowback from that was inevitable. Putin is a callous, paranoid asshole, but he understands simple cause and effect like that. So the question is what does have to lose by going along with Erdogan spinning it as a gulenist plot and the answer is nothing. But if he does indulge Erdogan now he's got a buddy who owes him. A buddy with a country in a very strategic location, right on the black sea.
This assassination will be the best thing to happen to Erdogan in recent times and its going to be pretty damn good for Russia too. If Putin's really lucky it will help Turkey to leave NATO. Which, given the illiberal direction Edrogan has been taking the country was going to be a problem for NATO anyway. He's already recalled half of the officers assigned to NATO [wsj.com] under the pretense of them being gulenists.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fnj on Tuesday December 20 2016, @12:41AM
On behalf of world humanity, I mourn this senseless murder. That is all. There will be no political posturing or bellicosity in this message.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @01:02AM
> "Though the attack will strain relations between the two countries, it is not likely to rupture them altogether."
To the contrary this will improve ties. It will be seen as a crime against both Turkey and Russia, they will have a common enemy in terrorists. It will provide both countries with further justification for authoritarian actions against minorities. Double bonus if Erdogan can spin it as more gulenist plotting against him, like he did with coup.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday December 20 2016, @05:37AM
Bingo:
Russia, Turkey pledge need for more efforts to 'fight terrorism' [reuters.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday December 20 2016, @01:43AM
I came in looking for the Soviet Russia quips.
In Soviet Russia, Turkey shoots you?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @03:05AM
Assassination of an ambassador, Islamic terror, Aleppo.
Not particularly funny.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday December 20 2016, @12:49PM
It never is. It's why the Soviet Russia quips are typically in the dark end of the humor section.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday December 20 2016, @02:50PM
When everyone stops making jokes, then things have gotten terribly dangerous. So long as people can still laugh at themselves for being human, the danger level remains tolerable.
And, Soviet Russia laughs at your disapproval of dark/gallow humor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @11:11AM
Even if the killer happens to be assiciated to a terrorist organization, this specific action was not a terror attack, or an act of terror. It was an assassination, plain and simple. The killer murdered a specific person for what that person is/represents.
A terror attack doesn't actually target those killed; those are just means to an end, causing fear in the general public. This act has no potential to do that; it is a targeted murder of a politician. It is still a very wrong and despicable act, but it's not terror. It's assassination, nothing more, nothing less.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday December 20 2016, @05:09PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday December 22 2016, @12:41AM
I'd differentiate thus, without getting into corner cases and details:
Assassination can be anyone, for any reason. Object is primarily to make them dead. Might even look like natural causes, suicide, or accident.
Terrorism is about instilling fear in the living as a lever for getting your way. Assassination may be a method or byproduct, but is not really the main goal.
In this case, the killing accomplished both.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @02:09PM
The killer yelled "Allah u akbar", which means "Allah is greater (than your gods)". Allah demands from Muslims that they wage a literal world war until all religion is for Allah. That sort of demand is unique to Allah, and not "God" in general.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/19/russian-ambassador-to-turkey-wounded-in-ankara-shooting-attack [theguardian.com] (evidence within first few seconds of embedded video, no corpse or death seen during that time)
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday December 20 2016, @02:48PM
Was it this passage? I believe Yahweh had just finished giving the 10 commandments and laying down a bunch of property laws concerning servants, virgins, animals, and sacrifices. Exodus 23:20–24:8 MSG as he continues (the part in chapter 24 isn't strictly necessary but I felt it provided a good bookend):
“Now get yourselves ready. I’m sending my Angel ahead of you to guard you in your travels, to lead you to the place that I’ve prepared. Pay close attention to him. Obey him. Don’t go against him. He won’t put up with your rebellions because he’s acting on my authority. But if you obey him and do everything I tell you, I’ll be an enemy to your enemies, I’ll fight those who fight you. When my Angel goes ahead of you and leads you to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, I’ll clear the country of them. So don’t worship or serve their gods; don’t do anything they do because I’m going to wipe them right off the face of the Earth and smash their sacred phallic pillars to bits.
“But you—you serve your God and he’ll bless your food and your water. I’ll get rid of the sickness among you; there won’t be any miscarriages nor barren women in your land. I’ll make sure you live full and complete lives.
“I’ll send my Terror on ahead of you and throw those peoples you’re approaching into a panic. All you’ll see of your enemies is the backs of their necks.
“And I’ll send Despair on ahead of you. It will push the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites out of your way. I won’t get rid of them all at once lest the land grow up in weeds and the wild animals take over. Little by little I’ll get them out of there while you have a chance to get your crops going and make the land your own. I will make your borders stretch from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Wilderness to the Euphrates River. I’m turning everyone living in that land over to you; go ahead and drive them out.
“Don’t make any deals with them or their gods. They are not to stay in the same country with you lest they get you to sin by worshiping their gods. Beware. That’s a huge danger.”
[Exodus 24]
He said to Moses, “Climb the mountain to God, you and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. They will worship from a distance; only Moses will approach God. The rest are not to come close. And the people are not to climb the mountain at all.”
So Moses went to the people and told them everything God had said—all the rules and regulations. They all answered in unison: “Everything God said, we’ll do.”
Then Moses wrote it all down, everything God had said. He got up early the next morning and built an Altar at the foot of the mountain using twelve pillar-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he directed young Israelite men to offer Whole-Burnt-Offerings and sacrifice Peace-Offerings of bulls. Moses took half the blood and put it in bowls; the other half he threw against the Altar.
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it as the people listened. They said, “Everything God said, we’ll do. Yes, we’ll obey.”
Moses took the rest of the blood and threw it out over the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has made with you out of all these words I have spoken.”
Well, I suppose that wasn't the entire world. However, I understand that Moses is an important figure in Islam.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @10:35PM
That's not an argument. The facts about Islam remain facts regardless of what you believe about a different book.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @10:44PM
Whoops, wrong thread. I guess I shoulda Previewed!