ANKARA, June 12. /TASS/. Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov was killed upon the order of supporters of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which is led by US-based Turkish preacher Fetullah Gulen, NTV channel reported on Monday citing the Ankara Public Prosecutor's Office.

According to the prosecutors, the perpetrator of the murder, off-duty Turkish police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas, had contacted with five people who are members of FETO. The investigators also found out that Altintas had met with one of the organization’s members in a five-star hotel in Cyprus, where he received instructions on how to assassinate the Russian ambassador.

The ambassador was gunned down on December 19, 2016 while delivering a speech at a photo exhibition. According to Turkey’s authorities, the attacker, an off-duty police officer named Mevlut Mert Altintas, was immediately killed by security forces. The Russian Foreign Ministry officially declared the ambassador’s murder a terrorist attack, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case designating Karlov’s assassination as an act of international terrorism. Karlov was posthumously awarded the Hero of Russia title.