Witness to an assassination: AP photographer recounts attack

PanARMENIAN.Net - Associated Press photographer Burhan Ozbilici was attending a photo exhibition Monday, December 19 when a Turkish policeman opened fire, killing Russia's ambassador to Turkey. He recounts how he captured the chaotic scene with his camera despite the lethal danger:

"The exhibition, titled "From Kaliningrad to Kamchatka, from the eyes of travelers" featured photos from Russia's westernmost Baltic region to the Kamchatka Peninsula, in the east. I decided to attend simply because it was on my way home from the Ankara office.

The photograph remembers how Karlov was speaking softly.

"Then came the gunshots in quick succession, and panic in the audience. The ambassador's body lay on the floor, just meters (yards) away from me. I couldn't see any blood around him; I think he may have been shot in the back," he says.

It took me a few seconds to realize what had happened: A man had died in front of me; a life had disappeared before my eyes."

"I moved back and to the left, while the gunman — later identified as police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas — gestured with his gun at people cowering on the right side of the room.

"The gunman was agitated. He walked around the ambassador's body, smashing some of the photos hanging on the wall.

I was, of course, fearful and knew of the danger if the gunman turned toward me. But I advanced a little and photographed the man as he hectored his desperate, captive audience.

This is what I was thinking: "I'm here. Even if I get hit and injured, or killed, I'm a journalist. I have to do my work. I could run away without making any photos. ... But I wouldn't have a proper answer if people later ask me: 'Why didn't you take pictures?'"