There can't be two opinions that diplomatic envoys and missions the world over
must at all times remain protected and immune while embassies and ambassadors
should not do anything illegal or misuse their immunity.
The assassination of the Russian
ambassador Andrei Karlov in Ankara obviously meant to further destabilize the
fragile Turkey-Russia relations with earlier attempts had failed to create
tensions between these two powers. The successful Pentagon efforts to force
the Turkish military to shoot down a Russian war plane and coup attempt in
Turkey by the enemies of Islam and Turkey are some of the failed important
anti-Islamic efforts recently to make Russia and Turkey fight a war.
Turkey is a NATO member, making it highly unlikely that Russia would consider
starting an out and out war with Turkey itself, especially when it is facing
antagonism and severe economic sanctions from both USA and Europe. If Russia
attacks Turkey, even by mistake, the NATO would certainly undertake attack son
Russia.
The terror attack on
Russian diplomat is an awful crime that every civilized person should condemn.
The shocking assassination of Russia's ambassador in Ankara on December 18 –
the first murder of a foreign diplomat in Turkey in decades – threatened to
rupture fragile relations between the two countries, critical to a peaceful
resolution of the Syrian conflict. The veteran diplomat was reportedly shot in
the back by a 22-year-old off-duty policeman who cited revenge over Russia's
policies in Aleppo, Syria's largest prewar city whose last rebel bastions were
recently overtaken by the army of Russian-supported permanent unelected
president dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Ambassador Andrei Karlov was giving a
speech for the opening of a Russian embassy-sponsored exhibit at an Ankara art
gallery. The gunman, who was identified as Mevlut Mert Altintas, wearing a
dark suit and tie, fired at least eight shots, at one point walking around Mr.
Karlov as he lay motionless and shooting him again at close range. The
spectacle of 62-year-old Mr. Karlov's assassination by a member of the Turkish
security forces at a photography show meant to highlight Russian culture
reinforced the sense of unease over the region's conflict and complex web of
alliances and relationships.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin
spoke by phone shortly after the shootout. ''This is a provocation to damage
the normalization process of Turkish-Russian relations. But both the Russian
and Turkish administrations have the determination not to fall for this
provocation,'' President Erdogan in said in a video message, adding that a
joint Russian-Turkish commission would be formed to investigate the murder.
''We must know who was directing the killer,'' President Putin said.
Given that former super power in Eurasia and West came close to armed
confrontation over the past years, and that the whole Middle East is being
redrawn, the plotters thought now the attack would force Moscow to imitate a
terror attack on Turkey. However, both these powers have used logic to decide
otherwise.
In a sign of just
how much Russian-Turkish relations have evolved since last year, when Turkey's
downing of a Russian bomber jet over the Syrian border came close to
escalating into a shooting war, the two regional rivals called the killing a
provocation and vowed not to let it undermine the emerging co-operation
between them.
In recent weeks,
with the USA preoccupied in a messy presidential transition, Turkey and Russia
have made attempts to negotiate a solution to the Syrian crisis without the
United States and the United Nations. The evacuation of Turkish-backed rebels
and civilians from eastern Aleppo is proof of that.
Turkey, like every other country on the
planet, has a duty to protect diplomatic missions without leaving the job
exclusively to military as President Erdogan, the target of military assassins
recently as part of the failed US-Germany-Israel joint attempt to destabilize
the Islamist nation in Europe, himself is not safe at all. Moscow has
understood this, and it is comforting that it has condemned the attack as an
act of terrorism.
The terror
attack as part of global Islamophobia came shortly before a breakthrough
between Turkey and Russia was said to have been reached in terms of an
agreement raises serious questions about the intentions of the plotters. Those
who planned this awful crime knew exactly how to instantly get attention and
news coverage, and seemingly were deliberately trying to poison the waters
between Russia and Turkey.
Those who planned the attack on Russian diplomat in Istanbul, hover, have
failed in their agenda of creating a clear wedge between Russia and Turkey
repeatedly as these big powers have decided to work together to target the
terrorist plans.
True, the
majority of the world disagrees with the Kremlin over its pro-Assad position
in destabilized Syria, killing Muslims jointly with USA, among others as part
of reducing the Islamic population and weaken Islamic faith as an act of
terrorism.
Russia has been seeking an end to Turkish-backed efforts to bring down al-Assad's
government while, in recent months, Turkish goals have appeared to subtly
shift toward building a buffer zone in northern Syria. Erdogan and other
Turkish officials have said they would build camps to house refugees from
Aleppo and possibly other parts of Syria in the areas liberated from the
Islamic State group. Experts have said previously that this could even offer a
way out of the standoff between the European Union and Turkey over the flow of
refugees by allowing Ankara to move refugee camps from its territory to the
buffer zone.
Hours after the assassination, pro-government media in Turkey were flush with
speculations, fed by comments from anonymous officials that the attack was
carried out on behalf of Fethullah Gulen, a charismatic Muslim preacher living
in Pennsylvania the man supposedly behind the failed military coup in July.
The Turkish government believes thousands of Gulen followers have infiltrated
the country's institutions. Over several months, members of the Turkish
military, police, judiciary and academia have been arrested for alleged links
to the Gulen organization.
It
is of a paramount importance that all concerned parties should soon return to
the negotiating table and focus all efforts on ending the ongoing bleeding of
Syria. Terror wars indeed encourage and promote such terror attacks globally
and all such acts of terror could be justified by the corporate media
accelerating the process of trade in terror goods in the pretext of so-called
Islamic terrorism.
The murder of the Russian ambassador could hurt Turkey's leverage in the
Moscow talks. The incident might impair Ankara's ability to diplomatically
pressure Russia and it opens up more extensive pressuring channels for Moscow
to force Ankara to end any proxy relations into Syria, effectively cutting off
Ankara from Aleppo or its aftermath.
Both countries' continued self-restraint
is highly crucial to check any more attacks in Turkey and avoid further
escalation in the region. The Turkish-Russia relationship will face its first
test in the wake of the assassination. A three-way summit between Turkey's
Foreign Minister and his Russian and Iranian counterparts is to take place in
Moscow. Iran is the other main backer of the Assad regime.
If anything, the attack on the Russian
diplomat in Ankara will increase the intelligence and security partnership,
besides stronger economic ties, between the two countries. However, given
tense relations between Ankara and Moscow over the past year, centuries of
historical rivalry and animosity, and colliding foreign policies in the
carnage of the Syrian civil war, both have to be very cautious about the
persistent enemy plans to run over the fragile ties between them.
Moscow and Ankara need each other as
they seek to negotiate a ceasefire in Syria, something that would increase
their international status and leverage in the war-torn country at the expense
of the West.
As Syria is being controlled by foreign forces and it has lost its sovereignty
in real terms, Russia, Turkey and USA – the illegal stakeholders- must come
together to end their joint war in Syria, end blood bath. Revival of Syrian
sovereignty would also save Russia and Turkey form possible repressive
measures by the governments.
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