Russian ambassador murder: a controlled assassin?

[Richard Coleman]

I realize this is pretty far out and it's speculation but I was struck as I read this on the RT website:

"Ambassador Karlov was attacked at an art exhibition in Ankara by an armed man said to be an off-duty Turkish police officer, Mevlut Altintas. The diplomat was several minutes into his opening speech when Altintas pulled out a gun, shouted "Allahu Akbar," and fired multiple shots.

The man then shouted in Turkish: "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria! Only death can take me from here. Everyone who is involved in this suffering will pay a price." Before he was killed by Turkish Special Forces, he also yelled in Arabic: "We are the one who pledged allegiance to Muhammad, to wage jihad."

Video I've seen of the guy and his voice immediately suggested that he seems programmed. Just a wild speculation, I know. (He even resembles Sirhan.)

[Paul Rigby]

I realize this is pretty far out and it's speculation but I was struck as I read this on the RT website:

"Ambassador Karlov was attacked at an art exhibition in Ankara by an armed man said to be an off-duty Turkish police officer, Mevlut Altintas. The diplomat was several minutes into his opening speech when Altintas pulled out a gun, shouted "Allahu Akbar," and fired multiple shots.

The man then shouted in Turkish: "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria! Only death can take me from here. Everyone who is involved in this suffering will pay a price." Before he was killed by Turkish Special Forces, he also yelled in Arabic: "We are the one who pledged allegiance to Muhammad, to wage jihad."

Video I've seen of the guy and his voice immediately suggested that he seems programmed. Just a wild speculation, I know. (He even resembles Sirhan.)

Nothing "far out" about it. Notice the blond female reporter (?) who took up position, ostensibly to take notes, behind the ambassador:

[video=youtube_share;Cl8N7MQQuW8]http://youtu.be/Cl8N7MQQuW8[/video]

Trigger for action? Back up? It would be interesting to know more about her.

[Richard Coleman]

Thanks Paul. The video you linked to seems to have been withdrawn from You Tube on account of "violence". Hmmmmm.

[Albert Doyle]

The footage showed a man being shot in the back and his facial expressions as he felt the first bullet. I suppose it would fall under filmed murder so there probably would be issues involved. There's an ethical line in advertising human suffering and victimization.


Of course CNN had no problem showing people having their heads cut off by Al Qaeda.

[Paul Rigby]

Thanks Paul. The video you linked to seems to have been withdrawn from You Tube on account of "violence". Hmmmmm.

[video=youtube_share;C88L5FzLRPk]http://youtu.be/C88L5FzLRPk[/video]

[Paul Rigby]

Thanks Paul. The video you linked to seems to have been withdrawn from You Tube on account of "violence". Hmmmmm.

[video=youtube_share;C88L5FzLRPk]http://youtu.be/C88L5FzLRPk[/video]

At 1:29 in the above, both the blond and the assassin appear to be looking at the same figure(s) or point in front of the ambassador.

[Paul Rigby]

Vladimir Golstein on Facebook:

My two cents.

So who the hell is this photographer who took the pictures of the Ambassador's murder?

Named Burhan Ozbilici.

The pictures are too good to be true, almost as if the other guy was posing. Once you read the comments, you see that Julia Joffe, the Russophobe extraordinaire praises the quality of pictures. That should make us all very suspicious.

Then the press begins to bombard us with the stories of the courageous photographer, who just happened to be there. In fact, that's what he says. He wasn't even invited -- just passing by and decided to stop by and make the pictures.

And sure enough there were plenty of material to shoot. Some of the pictures look as if he was no more that 10 feet away. Wasn't he afraid to make strange sounds in front of raving maniac with the loaded gun?
I went to the photographer twitter account, and I wish I could read Turkish.

He posts a lot, but whatever he posts in English and French, it is very pro-Western and anti Russia-Syrian coalition.

He has pictures of Russian planes ready to bomb the rebels (that's how he calls them, not the terrorists or jihadists); he has a photo-shopped picture of a person who looks like a mixture of Putin and F. Fillon, he has pictures of Turkish soldiers or their mothers.

He is also unbelievably narcisstic. Every third tweet of his is about how many followers he gained and lost. In short, he appears as very anti-Russian, anti-Syrian, Turkish nationalist fixated on himself.

But if some of my Turkish reading friends call tell us more about his tweets, that would be interesting. Also interesting to get the sense of Turkish coverage of Aleppo. I suspect it was as hysterical as that of England and US. Which is really troubling.

In any case, I have a hunch that this photographer did not happen there by chance. Too many strange coincidences.

Russian ambassador killing: Photographer who captured the scene

20 December 2016

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/12/19/...peaks-out/

"The event was routine enough the opening of an exhibit of photographs of Russia and when a man on stage pulled out a gun, I thought it was a theatrical flourish," he wrote. "It was anything but. Moments later the Russian ambassador was sprawled on the floor and the attacker was waving his gun at the rest of us, shouting slogans."

Almost as if on autopilot, Ozbilici continued snapping photos as the horror unfolded:

He shot the ambassador at least once more at close range and smashed some of the framed photos on the wall. In all there were at least eight shots.

Guests ran for cover, hiding behind columns and under tables. I composed myself enough to shoot pictures.

"Don't forget Aleppo. Don't forget Syria!" the gunman shouted in Turkish, referring to the Syrian city where Russian bombardments have helped drive rebels from areas they had occupied for years during the war. He also shouted "Allahu akbar" but I couldn't understand the rest of what he said in Arabic.
The ambassador, who was rushed to a nearby hospital, died shortly after being shot by the gunman, who was later identified as police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas. He was killed after a 15-minute shootout.

As for Ozbilici, who sustained no injuries from the shooting, he has been widely praised on social media for the photos he took of the assailant.

[Richard Coleman]

The footage showed a man being shot in the back and his facial expressions as he felt the first bullet. I suppose it would fall under filmed murder so there probably would be issues involved. There's an ethical line in advertising human suffering and victimization.


Of course CNN had no problem showing people having their heads cut off by Al Qaeda.

Nobody seems to have problems showing footage of Ruby killing Oswald either.

[Paul Rigby]

Vladimir Golstein on Facebook:

My two cents.

So who the hell is this photographer who took the pictures of the Ambassador's murder?

Named Burhan Ozbilici.

The pictures are too good to be true, almost as if the other guy was posing. Once you read the comments, you see that Julia Joffe, the Russophobe extraordinaire praises the quality of pictures. That should make us all very suspicious.

Then the press begins to bombard us with the stories of the courageous photographer, who just happened to be there. In fact, that's what he says. He wasn't even invited -- just passing by and decided to stop by and make the pictures.

And sure enough there were plenty of material to shoot. Some of the pictures look as if he was no more that 10 feet away. Wasn't he afraid to make strange sounds in front of raving maniac with the loaded gun?
I went to the photographer twitter account, and I wish I could read Turkish.

He posts a lot, but whatever he posts in English and French, it is very pro-Western and anti Russia-Syrian coalition.

He has pictures of Russian planes ready to bomb the rebels (that's how he calls them, not the terrorists or jihadists); he has a photo-shopped picture of a person who looks like a mixture of Putin and F. Fillon, he has pictures of Turkish soldiers or their mothers.

He is also unbelievably narcisstic. Every third tweet of his is about how many followers he gained and lost. In short, he appears as very anti-Russian, anti-Syrian, Turkish nationalist fixated on himself.

But if some of my Turkish reading friends call tell us more about his tweets, that would be interesting. Also interesting to get the sense of Turkish coverage of Aleppo. I suspect it was as hysterical as that of England and US. Which is really troubling.

In any case, I have a hunch that this photographer did not happen there by chance. Too many strange coincidences.

Russian ambassador killing: Photographer who captured the scene

20 December 2016

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/12/19/...peaks-out/

"The event was routine enough the opening of an exhibit of photographs of Russia and when a man on stage pulled out a gun, I thought it was a theatrical flourish," he wrote. "It was anything but. Moments later the Russian ambassador was sprawled on the floor and the attacker was waving his gun at the rest of us, shouting slogans."

Almost as if on autopilot, Ozbilici continued snapping photos as the horror unfolded:

He shot the ambassador at least once more at close range and smashed some of the framed photos on the wall. In all there were at least eight shots.

Guests ran for cover, hiding behind columns and under tables. I composed myself enough to shoot pictures.

"Don't forget Aleppo. Don't forget Syria!" the gunman shouted in Turkish, referring to the Syrian city where Russian bombardments have helped drive rebels from areas they had occupied for years during the war. He also shouted "Allahu akbar" but I couldn't understand the rest of what he said in Arabic.
The ambassador, who was rushed to a nearby hospital, died shortly after being shot by the gunman, who was later identified as police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas. He was killed after a 15-minute shootout.

As for Ozbilici, who sustained no injuries from the shooting, he has been widely praised on social media for the photos he took of the assailant.

Witness to an assassination: AP photographer captures attack

By BURHAN OZBILICI
Dec. 20, 2016

https://apnews.com/eadca282d5d341a79bb464bbadc4fa11

EDITOR'S NOTE: Associated Press photographer Burhan Ozbilici was attending a photo exhibition Monday when a Turkish policeman opened fire, killing Russia's ambassador to Turkey. He recounts how he captured the chaotic scene with his camera despite the lethal danger.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) The event seemed routine, the opening of an exhibit of photographs of Russia. So when a man in a dark suit and tie pulled out a gun, I was stunned and thought it was a theatrical flourish.

Instead, it was a coolly calculated assassination, unfolding in front of me and others who scrambled, terrified, for cover as the trim man with short hair gunned down the Russian ambassador.

The gunshots, at least eight of them, were loud in the pristine art gallery. Pandemonium erupted. People screamed, hid behind columns and under tables and lay on the floor. I was afraid and confused, but found partial cover behind a wall and did my job: taking photographs.

The exhibition, titled "From Kaliningrad to Kamchatka, from the eyes of travelers" featured photos from Russia's westernmost Baltic region to the Kamchatka Peninsula, in the east. I decided to attend simply because it was on my way home from the Ankara office.

When I arrived, the speeches had already begun. After Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov began to make his address, I moved closer to photograph him, thinking the pictures would come in useful for stories on Turkish-Russian relations.

He was speaking softly and from what I could tell lovingly about his homeland, stopping occasionally to allow the translator to relay his words in Turkish. I remember thinking how calm and humble he seemed.

Then came the gunshots in quick succession, and panic in the audience. The ambassador's body lay on the floor, just meters (yards) away from me. I couldn't see any blood around him; I think he may have been shot in the back.

It took me a few seconds to realize what had happened: A man had died in front of me; a life had disappeared before my eyes.

I moved back and to the left, while the gunman later identified as police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas gestured with his gun at people cowering on the right side of the room.

At first, I couldn't figure out what had motivated the shooter. I thought he might be a Chechen militant. But people later said he was shouting about the Syrian city of Aleppo.

So he was probably angry about Russian bombardments of Aleppo that were aimed at driving out anti-government rebels. Many civilians have been killed in the fighting.

He also shouted "Allahu akbar," but I couldn't understand the rest of what he said in Arabic.

The gunman was agitated. He walked around the ambassador's body, smashing some of the photos hanging on the wall.

I was, of course, fearful and knew of the danger if the gunman turned toward me. But I advanced a little and photographed the man as he hectored his desperate, captive audience.

This is what I was thinking: "I'm here. Even if I get hit and injured, or killed, I'm a journalist. I have to do my work. I could run away without making any photos. ... But I wouldn't have a proper answer if people later ask me: 'Why didn't you take pictures?'"

I even thought about friends and colleagues who have died while taking photographs in conflict zones over the years.

As my mind raced, I saw that the man was agitated and yet, he was, strangely, in control of himself. He shouted at everyone to stand back. Security guards ordered us to vacate the hall and we left.

Ambulances and armored vehicles soon arrived and the police operation was launched. The gunman was later killed in a shootout.

When I returned to the office to edit my photos, I was shocked to see that the shooter was actually standing behind the ambassador as he spoke. Like a friend, or a bodyguard.

[Paul Rigby]

Russian Ambassador to Turkey Assassinated: The Facts, Motives & Beneficiaries

Boiling Frogs Post

Published on Dec 23, 2016
In this edition of Newsbud Spotlight with Sibel & Spiro, Sibel Edmonds covers the recent assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey in Ankara. Edmonds covers the critical timing of the hit, the known facts, the motives and who benefits from this assassination as well as other questionable deaths of high ranking officials on both sides.

[video=youtube_share;vJyvHzrfIKQ]http://youtu.be/vJyvHzrfIKQ[/video]