Ankara ceremony commemorates slain Russian envoy

By Tugrul Cam

ANKARA (AA) – A ceremony in Ankara on Thursday commemorated Andrei Karlov, Russia’s former ambassador to Turkey, over his 2016 assassination in Turkey’s capital.

Russian Ambassador to Ankara Aleksey Yerhov, Yonet Can, an official from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, and Murat Baybatur, the head of friendship group between Turkish and Russian parliaments, were in attendance of the ceremony at the Russian Embassy.

On Dec. 19, 2016, Andrei Karlov was killed while addressing the opening of an art exhibition in Ankara by Mevlut Mert Altintas, an off-duty police officer linked to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the deadly defeated coup attempt of 2016 in Turkey. The assailant was shot dead in a standoff.

Speaking at the ceremony, Yerhov expressed Russia’s suffering over the death of Karlov and said they would continue to work to keep his memory alive.

The relations between Turkey and Russia need to move forward with further joint activities, the ambassador said.

Also addressing the ceremony was Tezel who said the perpetrators of the treacherous attack aimed to harm the Turkish-Russian relations, but it has been the opposite.

*Writing by Fahri Aksut