Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey who was shot dead in an art gallery on Monday, was a veteran diplomat who had spent much of his career in Moscow and had taken up the job in Ankara in the summer of 2013.



He had previously served as Moscow’s ambassador to North Korea and as deputy head and then head of the consular department at Russia’s foreign ministry. According to his ministry profile, he spoke English and Korean fluently. He was 62 and was married with a son.



His stint in Ankara coincided with a tumultuous period for relations between presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Traditionally warm ties between the two countries were already strained by the war in Syria when in late 2015 Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 on the Turkey-Syria border.

In an interview two months later, in February, Karlov squarely blamed Turkey for the crisis. The ambassador denied that the Russian jet had encroached on Turkish airspace. He also said there was no evidence that Russian warplanes had bombed civilians in Syria.

He told the Russian news agency Tass: “The Turkish leadership acts with increasingly bellicose statements towards Russia … In such circumstances I do not see prospects for the normalisation of relations.”

In fact, relations did normalise with surprising speed after Turkey apologised for the incident. Putin and Erdoğan met in August and formed what appears to resemble a loose anti-western alliance.

Karlov said he saw his role in Turkey as “protecting Russia’s national interest” and providing “unbiased information”. He said the Turkish media frequently presented Russia as an enemy. However, he said: “From ordinary citizens we don’t feel any enmity.”

He added: “We really do have a lot of good and reliable friends here. I’m certain that no propagandistic efforts can spoil this friendship.”

The Russian foreign ministry had not yet updated its website with news of Karlov’s death. Its profile said the ambassador had been in the foreign service since 1976. Karlov graduated from the Moscow Institute of International Relations, the main diplomatic academy for both the Soviet Union and Russia.

Karlov had extensive experience of the Russian foreign ministry and served as Russia’s ambassador to North Korea between 2001 and 2007. As the top consular official, he oversaw the work of 236 Russian diplomatic missions in 146 countries.

The British ambassador to Turkey, Richard Moore, tweeted: “Thoughts with my Russian colleague Andrei Karlov, his wife and family after this terrible attack. Quietly spoken, hospitable professional.”