Russian Ambassador to Turkey Fatally Shot | Hacker News Reader

Russian Ambassador to Turkey Fatally Shot

nytimes.com

This is a good example of the kind of political and current-affairs story that does not belong on HN. Remember that most politics are off topic here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

dan you're being disingenuous here. The historical significance of an incident like this is unusually clear.

I'm disappointed to see you resort to a term like "disingenuous".

Historical significance is just what's not clear from media reports in the first hours after an incident. Even if that were true, though, it doesn't follow that the story is on topic here.

Notable that this happened less than 24 hours before a trilateral meeting between Turkey, Russia, and Iran to negotiate a peace in Syria without any US involvement.

http://tass.com/politics/920319

Turkey and Russia have skirmished several times over the past couple of years. Also, Turkey is a member of NATO and other members are obliged by treaty to come to their aid if attacked.

This is pretty serious.

Obama wouldn't start a new conflict at this point and Trump has openly questioned the need for NATO. If Turkey wanted/needed support from NATO the US wouldn't come, and it's unlikely that many other Allies would join them if the US did not (since that would risk pushing the US from belligerence to actual alignment with Russia, and the immediate end of NATO).

s/Turkey/Czechoslovakia

The degree to which the other NATO nations are required to render assistance under 'collective reponse' is entirely undefined and subjective.

A box of 7.62mm ammunition would qualify.

It would also destroy NATO's credibility, resulting in huge political fallout and arms races all over the place. The Baltic states were already feeling uncomfortable after events in Ukraine, a default of any kind would convince them that they were on their own.

To make a tense situation even worse, the gunman was apparently a member of Turkish security forces.

Existing thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13213108

Good for them for not naming the gunman.

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