OREANDA-NEWS On December 19, 2016, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called Dmitry Medvedev on behalf of the Government and people of Turkey to express condolences over the tragic death of Ambassador Andrei Karlov.

Mr Yildirim spoke highly about the Russian ambassador’s contribution to the development of bilateral relations and said that the terrorist attack was designed to hinder the normalisation of Russian-Turkish cooperation and to complicate their joint efforts to settle regional problems.

Dmitry Medvedev replied that the murder of an ambassador in a terrorist attack is an extraordinary situation in international relations. He urged the Turkish Government to act immediately and take comprehensive and exhaustive steps to identify and punish the organisers, sponsors and patrons of this crime.