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Lavrov says ambassador's murder aimed at disrupting normalization of Russian-Turkish ties

The attacke is also aimed to prevent effective fight of the two countries against terrorism in Syria, accoridng to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. The main aim of assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey is the desire to undermine the process of normalization of Russian-Turkish relations and to prevent effective fight of the two countries against terrorism in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with NTV channel.

"We are confident that the main aim of those who plotted this barbaric thing was to undermine the process of normalization of relations between Russia and Turkey in order to prevent effective fight against terrorism in Syria," Lavrov said.

Organizers of the assassination of Russian Ambassador to Ankara Andrei Karlov will not succeed in undermining the process of normalizing Russian-Turkich relations, Lavrov said in a commentary published on the Russian Foreign Ministry's official website on Tuesday.

"This aim is with bad means. It will not go through," Lavrov said.

A gunman opened fire at the Russian diplomat at the opening of the photo exhibition "Russia from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka in the eyes of a traveler" in Ankara on Monday. Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that Karlov died from the injuries. She said Moscow considers this as a terrorist attack.

Turkish authorities said the attacker was immediately liquidated by local security forces. Three other people were injured on the scene. A source in the Russian Embassy in Ankara told TASS that there were no Russians among those injured.