Mevlüt Altıntaş, Turkish police officer and assassin of Andrei Karlov, Died at 22

Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş died on December 19, 2016.

He was a Turkish police officer and assassin of Andrei Karlov.

He assassinated Andrei Karlov after there were several days of protests in Turkey over Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War and the battle over Aleppo, though the Russian and Turkish governments had been negotiating a ceasefire.

Reportedly, Altıntaş himself shouted “Do not forget Aleppo, do not forget Syria” in both Turkish and Arabic.

However, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that the shooting was designed to disrupt the warming Russia–Turkey relations.

But, reportedly, The New York Times suggested a possible motive of revenge for the Russian Air Force’s targeting of rebel-held areas in Aleppo.

Mevlüt Altıntaş passed away at 22 years old.