The world is still in shock after a rogue police officer gunned down the Russian ambassador to Turkey and shouted “Allahu akbar” Monday, but one of CNN’s priorities was apparently to claim the jihadi doesn’t “speak for Muslims,” as if people might think he were an elected official and not a murderous Islamic extremist.
At the opening of an art exhibition in Ankara, Turkey, off-duty police officer Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, who was standing right behind Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov, suddenly took out his pistol and opened fire, shooting Karlov in the back numerous times. Karlov collapsed on the ground immediately and was later pronounced dead on the scene.
Although CNN admitted that the rogue cop “seems to have a religious motivation,” reporter Nic Robertson added directly after that “there is no guarantee he represents Muslims of any sort.”
Right after the shooting, Altıntaş starts screaming “Allahu akbar” and claimed the killing was revenge for Russia’s bombing in Aleppo.
“We will not forget Aleppo, we will not forget Syria,” Altıntaş said in Turkish, according to The Daily Beast. “No one can be safe as long as our brothers there are not. Get out of my way.”
He also then said: “We are the ones who pledged Bai’a (fealty) to Mohammed on the terms of Jihad as long as we live.”
Altıntaş reportedly let people in the gallery leave after he shot the ambassador.
The assassination took place just before Russian, Turkish and Iranian officials were scheduled to discuss strategy in Syria, now that Aleppo has been recaptured by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“We have questions for Turkey, that failed to provide security for a such a high-profile diplomat. I have no doubts that radical islamists moved the murder’s hand and it does not matter if they were from [ISIS] or from Jabhat al-Nusra Front,” Russian senator Franz Klinzewitsch said Monday, according to The Daily Beast. “The purpose is clear: they wanted to pay a revenge to our country for Syria and at the same time to try and cause a forehead to forehead confrontation between Russia and Turkey.”
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