On Monday, during the opening of an exhibit at an arts center in Ankara, Turkey, an off-duty police officer shot and killed the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov. Witnesses said the man, who wore a suit and tie during the attack, yelled: “Don’t forget about Aleppo, don’t forget about Syria” and “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.” The assailant, before he was shot and killed by Turkish Special Forces, also wounded three other people.

A reporter with Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper said the gunman shot into the air, and then shot Karlov in the back. Turkey’s police forces swarmed the arts center, and promptly evacuated the attendees, many of whom crouched in the corner of the exhibition hall. The walls of the hall were covered in photographs from the “Russia as seen by Turks” exhibit, which opened on Monday with a speech from Karlov, minutes before he was killed.

The moment before: The Russian Ambassador to Turkey looks at a painting at a gallery in Ankara earlier today. Behind him, his assassin… pic.twitter.com/sZyJsTnAYo

— Tunku Varadarajan (@tunkuv) December 19, 2016

Melih Gokcek, the mayor of Ankara, Turkey’s capital, said the attack was intended “to ruin Turkey-Russia relations.” Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry said the diplomat “will remain in our hearts forever,” adding: “Terrorism will not pass! We will fight it resolutely.” The motive for the attack is unclear at this time. A top-ranking member of Russia’s parliament, Leonid Slutsky, said relations between the two powers will not weaken because of this incident. “There are differences between us,” he said. “It’s a horrendous tragedy, but relations between our states will not suffer.”

Soon after the attack, CNN Turk reported Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone. One possible motive for the killing: the unraveling of Aleppo, Syria, where government forces, heavily backed by Russia, mowed down the city in a matter of weeks, killing  hundreds of civilians and displacing thousands more.

Turkey and Russia back different sides in the Syrian conflict, but brokered a ceasefire agreement and collaborated to evacuate rebel fighters and civilians out of Aleppo. On its state-run news channel, Syria condemned Monday’s “cowardly terrorist act.” Karlov began his diplomatic career in 1976, and became Russia’s top diplomat to Turkey in 2013. According to his biography page on the Russian Embassy website, Karlov spoke English and Korean. He is survived by his wife and son.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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On Wednesday morning, Turkish tanks and special forces units supported by American airstrikes stormed across Turkey’s southern border with Syria, into the town of Jarablus. Within hours, ISIS and Kurdish militants–who control most of the surrounding territory–were thwarted, and the town was under the control of Syrian rebel groups. ISIS troops fled south to the town of al-Bab.

The incursion, while successful from Turkey’s perspective, underscores the interconnected and at times contradictory relationships of the Syrian civil war, which is in its sixth year. Turkey is a NATO member, and therefore an important ally in the region for the U.S., especially as a bulwark against ISIS. But Syrian Kurds, who control much of the border with Turkey, are considered terrorists by Turkey, yet are also one of the U.S.’s most potent surrogates in the fight against ISIS.

But ISIS is the one common denominator in Syria, the one foe that all parties share–Turkey, the U.S., Syrian rebel factions, the Syrian government and its allies (which includes Russia and Iran), and Syrian Kurds. With Wednesday’s “Euphrates Shield” mission–Jarablus sits on the western bank of the Euphrates– Turkey made clear its goal of ridding the border of ISIS and the Kurds, a longtime adversary who it fears aims to create a border-length autonomous zone.

#UPDATE Syria rebels backed by Turkey tanks ‘seize’ IS-held town Jarabulus https://t.co/DyB9GEyXD8 pic.twitter.com/JMOCNU5ZPA

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 24, 2016

Vice President Joe Biden, who flew to Turkey’s capital, Ankara, on Wednesday to discuss combating ISIS, stood by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Though the U.S. backs Syrian Kurds, Biden said they “must move back across the Euphrates River. They cannot, will not, under any circumstance get American support if they do not keep that commitment.” He added: “We believe very strongly that the Turkish border should be controlled by Turkey.”

Roughly 1,500 soldiers from Syrian rebel groups backed Turkey’s assault, according to an activist embedded with the rebels. It is unclear if Turkey expects the rebels to hand over control of the town, or if its accomplishment of wiping it clean of ISIS militants and Kurds is enough.

Syria, which effectively holds no governance over the territory near its border with Turkey, nevertheless called Turkey’s incursion a “blatant violation” of its sovereignty. Turkey’s aggressive incursion is a response to a string of attacks on its soil by ISIS, most recent of which was a suicide bombing at a wedding in Gaziantep on Saturday. That attack killed 54 people.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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