By Thomas Goltz
On some demand, folks have asked me to comment on the assassination of Andrey Korzev, the Russian ambassador to Turkey by a 22-year-old cop at an art opening on Saturday night in Ankara, and what this might mean.
I am reluctant to comment about the geopolitical implications of this cold-blooded murder of a senior and critically-placed diplomat, or even to speculate about the political affiliations of his killer.
But as speculation hits the cyber-sphere, I feel I need to intervene ASAP about certain elements now apparently going viral, such as how the chilling images of the assassination of H.E. Kozrev were captured.
My point here is to staunch and kill any and all rumour that this was a media–designed ‘set-up,’ and specifically—what I have read with extraordinary disbelief—that certain old friends of mine were complicit in a frame-job.
This is outrageous, and anyone dipping into this gutter of non-news filth should be ashamed of themselves.
Specifically, my old pal Burhan Ozbilici, the AP photographer who captured the awful assassination images had the guts to stand his ground when the shooting started, and needs to be praised.
I have known Burhan for more than 30 years, and any suggestion that he was somehow “planted” (as I have seen on conspiracy-oriented social media) is an utter abomination of reality and a very good reason why social media gossip should be shut down, lest lies and gossip and fake news take control of whatever non-Trump elements of our thinking lives we still control.
Burhan is a very brave man and a journalist who did his job in the face of extreme personal danger; he could easily have been killed shooting the pictures that he shot, and the idea now getting passed around some social media circles that he was somehow “planted” is a grotesque abomination of a true journalistic hero. Burhan did his job, where many others of us have failed, ducking.
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Weirdly, one of the last times I saw Burhan was in Istanbul, right before I was to sally forth on an ill-fated trip to Chechnya via Azerbaijan and Dagestan.
By complete coincidence, with me trying to be as incognito as I could, we met in front of the 10th century Sultan Ahmet ‘Blue’ Mosque facing the 6th-century Agha Sophia Cathedral/Museum.
“Thomas?” asked the guy to my left, outside the avlu, or gallery where believing Muslims wash their feet before entering the sacred space.
It was Burhan, and I have no idea why he was there.
I, while not a Muslim at all, was about to wash my feet at the Sultan Ahmet Mosque because I did not know whether I would soon live or die. I had my pending difficult and likely dangerous journey to at-war Chechnya on my mind, and certain ritual stuff is not always hypocritical, if you see what I mean.
That was when my old pal the AP fotog asked if he could take my picture, just outside the world-famous edifice.
“Why?” I asked Burhan, just a little irritated.
“Because Sultan Ahmet is known for its four minarets,” said my old AP fotog friend, Burhan. “Now it has five.”
Click, click, went his camera, making my head into Sultan Ahmed’s fifth.
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I flew to Baku and then Chechnya the next day, and have never seen the “Five Minaret” pix that day I decided to leap into hell.
Maybe, someday Burhan will send me the same—after he gets over his viral-fame for taking the most gutsy photo-journalistic shots of an ongoing assassination ever seen.
Congratulations, Bey.
You done our thin-edged profession proud.