Russian investigators inspect the scene of Karlov murder at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cankaya in Ankara, yesterday.
Ankara: The 22-year-old Turkish policeman who gunned down the Russian ambassador in Ankara called in sick on the day of the attack and promised to bring a doctor’s note for his supervisors, a senior security official told Reuters.
The government has identified Mevlut Mert Altintas as the gunman who shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo!” and “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire repeatedly on envoy Andrey Karlov while he was giving a speech at an art gallery in the Turkish capital.
The attack, caught on video and widely circulated on social media, was a grisly reminder of the spillover faced by both Turkey and Russia from the Syrian civil war, where they are on opposing sides and where Russian-backed Syrian forces last week ended rebel resistance in the northern city of Aleppo.
On Monday morning, Altintas called the division of the Ankara riot police where he had worked for 2-1/2 years and said he was unwell and would bring a doctor’s note upon his return, the official said.
Altintas, who lived in a shared flat in the Demetevler neighbourhood on the outskirts of Ankara, spent the night before the attack at a hotel in central Ankara close to the gallery, the official said. “He walked from the hotel ... to the gallery. He showed his police ID at the entrance,” the official said.
This allowed him to bypass a security check and bring his gun into the venue.
