Turkish police detain 6 as part of probe into airing of Russian ambassador Karlov’s assassination footage

Turkish police forces on Thursday detained six employees of public broadcaster the TRT within the scope of the investigation into Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov's assassination.

The suspects, five current and a former employee of the TRT, were detained over their suspected links to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) after the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched a probe into the broadcasting of the footage of the envoy's assassination on TV.

Karlov was killed on Dec. 19, 2016 by Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, an off-duty police officer with links to the FETÖ, in an art gallery in the capital Ankara. Altıntaş was killed in a shootout with police in the gallery after the assassination.

Prosecutors say the assassin first tried to kill Karlov in an event hosted by Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) six months before the assassination.

Prosecutors say the FETÖ and "foreign powers that used the group" aimed to derail bilateral relations between Turkey and Russia through the assassination and "drive the countries to a possible conflict" as well as "creating chaos ahead of July 15, 2016."

The assassination was at a time of thaw between strained Turkish and Russian relations. Since the murder, Ankara and Moscow gradually made progress in rebuilding their ties that were disrupted by the 2015 downing of a Russian fighter jet over the Syrian border by the Turkish military.

The FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 that killed 251 people and injured nearly 2,200 others.

Ankara accuses the FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.