When the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov was assassinated during an exhibition he attended in Ankara, many groups particularly in the Western media likened the incident to the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the potential heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, which triggered World War I. They certainly have a point in drawing such an analogy since many similar assassinations throughout history brought about wars. Also, many claimed that the assassination would cause a serious tension in the volatile and incipient Moscow-Ankara alliance, which did not come out right.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed that the assassination of Karlov was motivated to diminish Turkey-Russia relations. On the night of the incident, both presidents stated that the assassination was a provocation aiming to hamper the normalization process in bilateral relations, adding that they agreed to form a joint committee on the subject. Upon that, a delegation consisting of 18 Russian officials visited Turkey to join the committee that investigated the murder. Putin said that the assassination is surely a provocation and they want to identify who instigated it. Russia bestowed a Hero of Russia honor on Karlov, who was appointed to Ankara three years before his death and endeavored to restore ties between the two countries during his term in office.

The perpetrator, who was obviously aware that he could not stay alive after shooting the ambassador in the art gallery, screamed: “Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria” just after shooting Karlov. Police later killed him. The perpetrator, Mert Altıntas, was a 22-year-old policeman who had served in Ankara’s riot police unit. Although his profile did not give any clue about his affiliation to a terror group like Al-Nusra or Daesh, his possible links to these terror groups were investigated. Eventually, the data collected on his background and networks indicated that the hitman was a member of the Gulenist Terror Group (FETO). Although it is not easy for a foreigner to understand, another hint was unraveled which made it clear for Turkish people that it was another typical act of FETO. An episode of a TV series titled Nizama Adanmis Ruhlar (The Souls Devoted to the Order), which was aired in December 2014, on FETO-owned and now defunct STV channel, showed that a Russian Ambassador was assassinated in an art gallery, which is curiously identical to Karlov’s murder.

There were more findings, but they remained insufficient for the prosecutor. The investigation continued. The perpetrator’s PC hard disc was examined but it turned out that all his files were deleted. As part of the investigation Turkey and Russia conducted jointly, Russia asked to examine his PC with a different method, and eventually the deleted data were found. Among the data, the Russian delegation found that two files with the words “Fetullah Gulen,” the leader of FETO, 690 files with the word “Hizmet,” a term that literally means “service” which FETO calls itself, four files with “FETO”, and one file with “Nur Community” were deleted from his computer.

The delegation also searched for the words “Al Qaeda,” “Al Nusra,” and “Daesh” among the deleted files but found no results. Following the meetings held between the Russian delegation and the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office, Ankara Public Prosecutor Adem Akinci, who ran the Turkish leg of the investigation, started the works to identify the FETO unit Altintas was affiliated with. It was found that the person Altintas was answerable to is a teacher who is currently jailed pending trial in Ankara as part of another FETO case. The prosecutor’s office issued an arrest warrant for the person considering his possibility of acquittal.

In a statement released on the subject, the prosecutor’s office expounded that Altintas was a FETO operative and that according to the findings the assassination was organized by FETO. According to the prosecutor’s office, FETO members planned the assassination in a way to show the hitman as an Al Qaeda member for several months before the incident.

The case file has been completed. Upon the demand of the Ankara Public Chief Prosecutor’s Office that has run the investigation on the assassination of Karlov on December 19, 2016, Ankara 2^ndCriminal Court of Peace issued arrest warrants for Fetullah Gulen, Serif Ali Tekalan, Cemal Karata, Cengiz Ozkan, Emrullah Uslu, Hamza Sevinc, Murat Tokay and Temel Alsancak for “pre-meditated murder” and “attempt to overthrow the constitutional order.”

Thus, another file has been conveyed to the U.S. as regard to the extradition of Gulen, who currently resides in Pennsylvania, U.S. As the U.S. intelligence service has not collapsed, they must certainly know about this international terror group leader who has been living in the U.S. for 18 years. For Russia, on the other hand, FETO has been labelled as a group “made in the U.S.,”  even when FETO was perceived as a “legitimate” group in Turkey. We will see what happens next.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a joint press conference with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after a meeting held in Sochi, Russia.

President Erdogan arrived to the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on Monday morning. This is Erdogan’s third visit to Russia and the sixth meeting with Putin this year. The two leaders discussed Russian-Turkish bilateral relations, the joint fight against terrorism and the Syrian peace settlement.

Erdogan stated that relations between Ankara and Moscow were pleasing as they have reached “a very advanced level.” During the visit an agreement to focus on political rather than military solutions for Syria was also made.

Improvement in trade relations

Putin underlined that bilateral relations between the two states have been restored since the downing of the Russian warplane by Turkey over the southern Turkish border, two years ago.

He added that the two sides are likely to fully compensate the decline that occurred in the trade volume over the last year. The reason behind this optimism is that the trade volume between Turkey and Russia has increased by 36 percent in the first 9 months of 2017.

Emphasizing that certain limitations should be lifted in order to accelerate the increase in trade volume, Putin told reporters that during the meeting with Erdogan, they discussed in detail the issue of removing remaining restrictions on agricultural products.

Affirming his counterpart, Erdogan said that “in order to reach the target we declared as 100 billion dollars, we have to remove all obstacles including the visa before our businessmen. It is of great importance that the visa exemption is restored.”

Turkey’s Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant to be launched in 2023

President Putin stated that the issues of strategic cooperation were also discussed at the meeting and that the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant is currently on the top of the political agenda.

He said that the construction by Rosatom will begin soon, and that the projected date for the completion of the plant is 2023 – the 100^th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey.

Focus on a political solution in Syria

The two leaders also discussed regional and international issues, including recent developments in the Syrian crisis.

“We believe that the Astana meetings and de-escalation zones have contributed to a certain extent to reduction of violence in this region,” Erdogan stated.

“We have agreed that at present, grounds allowing us to focus on the political solution of the [Syrian] issue have emerged,” he said, also pointing out that Ankara stresses the importance of the joint statement by Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump on Syria, issued after the recent contacts of the two leaders in Vietnam.

Putin agreed that the joint work of Russia, Turkey and Iran as guarantors of the Astana peace settlement process for Syria had already given results. He emphasized, however, that the long-term stabilization efforts in Syria should be strengthened, especially with regard to a political settlement.