On December 19, 2016, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, was assassinated by Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, an off-duty police officer, in Ankara during an art exhibit. The assassination itself still has many unanswered questions: was the assassin acting alone or on someone's behalf or with the assistance of others; why did Turkish intelligence and law enforcement forces not provide sufficient security for the ambassador; what was the motive behind the attack and why was the assassin killed rather than captured? The Turkish government needs to be transparent about the findings of the investigation, demonstrating it has solid, objective evidence provided in a timely manner.

The Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, was shot and killed in an art exhibit event December 19, 2016 in Ankara, Turkey. Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, an off-duty Turkish police officer entered the art gallery by using his police ID and shot the Ambassador approximately ten times from behind as he addressed the crowd. As the Ambassador dropped to the floor his assassin shouted out the now too familiar jihadi mantra, “Allah-u Akbar, God is Great!” and following in Arabic “We have made an oath to the Prophet to die as martyrs in jihad, as I obey now! This is a revenge for Syria and Aleppo!” He continued in Turkish saying “Do not forget Aleppo, do not forget Syria! (Repeating this twice). As our homes are not safe, you will not taste security at your homes! I will only leave here dead! Whoever has a part in this tyranny, they will pay for it one by one; they will die!”

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2021/04/21/under-false-pretenses-who-directed-the-assassin-to-kill-the-russian-ambassador-in-turkey-in-2016/

İsmail Mahir Pasha was sent to Thessaloniki by Abdulhamid II as an inspector to investigate the Committee of Union and Progress which caused him to get caught by the radar of the Committee Union and Progress members when he returned to Istanbul. The Committee Union and Progress members sent him a fake letter to get him out of his household and consequently assassinated him on a street on December 2nd, 1908, by a man dressed as an officer who couldn’t get caught. The aim of this article is to evaluate the reasons of the assassination process and who he was assassinated by and to examine the political results of this assassination. L’ASSASSINIO DEL GENERALE İSMAIL MAHIR PASHA A ISTANBUL (1908) SINTESI Abdulhamid II mandò il generale İsmail Mahir Pascià a Salonicco con il compito di indagare intorno al Comitato per l’Unione e il Progresso. Al suo ritorno a Istanbul, il generale finì nel mirino dei membri del Comitato che gli inviarono una falsa lettera per farlo uscire di casa e di conseguenza, il 2 dicembre 1908, venne ucciso in strada. L’as- sassino, vestito da ufficiale, riuscì a dileguarsi. Lo scopo dell’articolo è approfondire le ragioni dell’assassinio e indagare su chi lo eseguì, oltre che esaminare i risvolti politici dell’omicidio. ATENTAT NA GENERALA İSMAILA MAHIRJA PASHO V ISTANBULU (1908) POVZETEK Po razglasitvi 2. ustavne monarhije je Odbor za zvezo in napredek še naprej usmerjal svoje napade na ljudi, ki so jih imeli za ljudi starega režima, in Mahir Pasha je bil kot sta- ri pomočnik sultana Osmanskega cesarstva Abdulhamida II. nedvomno eden od tistih, ki so bili v nevarnosti. Kot izkušen vojak, ki se je zavedal te nevarnosti, ni imel nikakršnega namena, da bi zapustil svoj dvorec. Nekega dne, pred 2. decembrom 1908, ga je nekdo, ki je bil oblečen v vojaška oblačila, povabil na ministrstvo, vendar temu vabilu ni verjel in se z vednostjo vojnega ministra ni zglasil na ministrstvu, minister pa je sam potrdil, da je bilo vabilo lažno. Vendar pa je 2. decembra spet nekdo v vojaških oblačilih prinesel telegram, kjer je spet pisalo, da ga vojni minister vabi na ministrstvo. Po tem telegramu se je Mahir Pasha odpravil na ministrstvo, vendar ga je na ulici Divanyolu umoril nekdo v oficirskih oblačilih. Atentatorja ni bilo mogoče ujeti. Ta atentat, ki je bil podoben tistim, ki jih je izvedla skupina atentatorjev Odbora, imenovana »Fedais«, je ostal nerešen umor. Umor Mahirja Pashe, ki se je zgodil zelo blizu palače in samega sultana, sredi dneva in sredi Istanbula, je imel svoje politične posledice. Namen tega članka je oceniti razloge za atentat, raziskati, kdo ga je umoril ter preučiti politične posledice tega atentata.

Current research is dedicated to the unstudied event of the Georgian diplomacy in the 80-ies of the XVIII century – unknown death of Capuchin ambassadors Domenico and Mauro Veronelli sent to Europe by Erekle II, the king of Kartli-Kakheti.Instruction (dated: 1782) of Catharine II confirms that Imperial Court of St. Petersburg was the initiator and interested force to disrupt the Ambassade sent to the Emperor of Austria by Erekle II.Based on the analysis of the primary sources preserved in the archives of Austria and Italy and the background political events, the current article reviews the preconditions and arguments unequivocally proving the assassinations of Erekle’s ambassadors and indicating that referred assassinations were ordered by the Imperial Court of Russia.

According to August 1996 records the last official status of Chechnya was postponed till 2001. Until that time Chechnya would be accepted independent in the presidency of Aslan Mashadov, the official general. However, this defeat was disgraceful according to Moscow and it was just a war that each side desired to revenge and test each other. The appointment of Putin, who was being more ambitious and aggressive than the others, foreshadowed the new applications to be implemented by the army. In September 1999, a series of bombings in the Moscow apartments caused the deaths of many people and caused property damage, which was used as a reason for the shady accusation of Chechnya. The government blamed the Chechen separatists for attacking areas of rebellion. The victory of the Russian forces fighting the guerrilla opposition forces destroyed the capital Grozny and other cities.

With Vladimir Putin’s visit to Turkey tomorrow, a new stage of bipartisan – and eventually bilateral – cooperation will be launched. Very little has been published so far on the advanced rapprochement between the age-old enemies on Black Sea’s northern and southern shores. The Russian presidential monarch’s visit is due to the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) summit, but it has been made clear by the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Vladimir Ivanovskiy that Putin intended to discuss key topics of bilateral cooperation, focusing on energy. Economic Rapprochement Earlier this month, in a meeting held at Moscow’s Prezident Hotel, the 2006 Awards of Merit were handed out at a ceremony sponsored by the Association for Business and Friendship between the Russian Federation and Turkey (RUTID). The obscure jury selected figures and institutions that had supposedly made significant contributions to the reinforcement of Turkish-Russian friendship in the fields of economy, art, sports and media. Izvestia, Russia’s prominent daily, and Zaman, key propaganda tool of the Islamic Extremist Turkish premier Erdogan, were given awards in the media category. Conspicuously used as decorative bibelots, Turkish and Russian intellectuals and businessmen gave short speeches on ways to widen and deepen the bilateral relations and friendship. Military Mutual Understanding The event was soon overshadowed by the spectacular visit the Turkish Air Forces commander Faruk Cömert paid to Russia ten days ago, which was the first since the establishment of diplomatic relations, 87 years ago. The Turkish general returned home with the decision to immediately establish a hot line between the two countries' air force commanders. The visit’s target was mainly to reciprocate the 2004 visit of the Russian air force commander to Turkey. First published in AfroArticles, American Chronicle, and Buzzle on 24th June 2007 Repubished in IntelliBriefs on 25th June 2007

This book explores an event described by the Times as 'one of the greatest and most sensational political conspiracies of modern times'. On 21 July 1905, just after the Friday Prayer at the Yıldız Hamidiye Mosque in Istanbul, a car bomb exploded and left 26 dead with another 58 wounded. Sultan Abdülhamid II, the target of the attack, remained unscathed. The Ottoman police soon discovered that Armenian revolutionaries were behind the plot and several people were arrested and convicted, among them the Belgian anarchist Edward Joris. His incarceration sparked international reaction and created a diplomatic conflict.The assassination attempt failed, the events faded from memory, and the plot became a footnote in early twentieth-century history. This book rediscovers the conspiracy as a transnational moment in late Ottoman history, opening a window on key themes in modern history, such as international law, terrorism, Orientalism, diplomacy, anarchism, imperialism, nationalism, mass media and humanitarianism. It provides an original look on the many trans- and international links between the Ottoman Empire, Europe and the rest of the world at the start of the twentieth century.

“Dishonorable Ambassadors: Spies and Secret Diplomacy in Ottoman Istanbul,” Archivum Ottomanicum 35 (2018):