Russian Ambassador Andrey Kalov moments before his attacker, in the background, fatally shot him in the back in an Ankara art gallery on Dec. 19. Photo: Twitter.

JNS.org – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned Monday’s assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, which threatens to undermine relations between two major allies of Israel.

“The murder of a diplomat serves as a stark reminder of the need for the civilized world to come together in fighting the forces of terrorism,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.

According to preliminary reports, while Karlov was speaking at the opening ceremony of a photo exhibit at an art gallery in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, a gunman — 22-year-old Turkish police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas — shot him several times in the back.

A video of the assassination shows the gunman opening fire and shouting “Allahu akbar. Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria!”

Three others were injured in the attack, and the gunman was reportedly shot dead by security forces, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the murder a clear “provocation aimed at undermining the normalization of Russia-Turkish relations as well as at undermining the peace process in Syria promoted by Russia, Turkey, Iran.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been working to repair relations with Russia after a Turkish fighter jet shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Syria-Turkish border in Nov. 2015, echoed Putin’s statement, also calling the assassination a “provocation on destroying the relationship between Turkey and Russia during this normalization process.”