ANKARA, Turkey — Investigators from Turkey and Russia hunted for clues Tuesday in the assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey in front of stunned onlookers at a photo exhibition in Ankara.
A team of 18 Russian investigators and foreign ministry officials arrived in Turkey and began inspecting the art gallery where the shooting of Andrei Karlov took place.
Central to the joint Turkish-Russian investigation is whether Mevlut Mert Altintas, a member of Ankara’s riot police squad, planned the attack alone.
One senior Turkish government official said it was unlikely Altintas acted alone.
The official said the killing had all the marks of being “fully professional, not a one-man action.”
So far, authorities have detained only people close to the gunman in their investigation: Altintas’ parents, sister, three other relatives and his roommate in Ankara.
Independent Turkish security analyst Abdullah Agar said it was “likely that an organization was behind” the assassination.
The analyst said that Altintas’ behavior and the manner in which he carried out the attack “gives the impression that he received training that was much more than riot police training.”
Agar also said the gunman’s words, which he uttered in Arabic, were from a passage frequently cited by jihadists.
Altintas shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo! Don’t forget Syria!” in Turkish during the attack, and also yelled “Allahu akbar,” the Arabic phrase for “God is great.” He continued in Arabic: “We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad, for jihad.”
A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said the country’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, provided U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry information on the assailant during a phone conversation on Tuesday.
Cavusoglu also told Kerry that both Turkey and Russia “know” that a movement led by U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind the attack, the official said.
Turkey has accused Gulen of orchestrating a failed military coup in July aimed at toppling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and accuses the cleric of wanting to destabilize Turkey. It is pressing the United States to extradite Gulen to Turkey to stand trial for his alleged role in the coup attempt. Gulen has denied the accusations.
According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Altintas took leave from work and on Dec. 14 made a hotel reservation near the art exhibition center. He checked into the hotel on Monday. Following the attack, police searched and later sealed his hotel room.
On arrival at the art gallery where the photo exhibition was taking place, Altintas was apparently initially stopped by security, but managed to get through with his weapon by using his police ID. The gun he used to shoot Karlov appeared to be a weapon that is standard issue for Turkey’s riot police.
