Russia, Turkey and an Assassination

For the moment, the most important thing to say about Monday’s dramatic assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey by a lone gunman is that it has not ruptured relations between the two countries.

It might have, given past tensions and Turkey’s dismay at Vladimir Putin’s role in the devastating civil war in Syria. Fortunately, the two sides appear to have chosen a more constructive path and decided to work together on a possible end to that war, remote as that seems. Despite the shooting, a meeting scheduled for Tuesday in Moscow involving the Turkish, Russian and Iranian foreign ministers went forward, followed by a statement later from the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, that the three had agreed to expand a fragile cease-fire in Syria, help the rebels and the Syrian government fashion a peace agreement and act as guarantors if a solution can be found.

 

Read More: Russia, Turkey and an Assassination – The New York Times