Murdered Russian Ambassador to Turkey Had Dialogue With Syrian Opposition

Assassinated Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov was working on establishing contacts with members of the Syrian opposition, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Monday, Karlov was killed by a gunman at an art gallery exhibition opening in Ankara. Three other people were also injured in the attack.

"He was a man who was in contact with opposition members, including the Syrian opposition and was working on setting up dialogue with them. This gives the tragedy a completely new angle," Zakharova said late on Monday while appearing on a Rossiya 1 channel program.

She added that the ambassador was aware of the difficulties involved in establishing peaceful dialogue in the region.

"He was dedicated to peace while knowing how… terrorists come about, how they spread their ideas in the region, how hard it is to set up a political process," Zakharova said.

Both Russian and Turkish foreign ministers, who spoke soon after the incident, said those behind the murder tried to disrupt Russian-Turkish ties and the two countries' joint efforts at settling the Syrian conflict. A representative of Syria's High Negotiations Committee (HNC) opposition group later expressed a similar opinion. At the same time, the representative told Sputnik that the murder was unlikely to have an impact on the Syrian situation.