INTELLIGENCE HEAD MISLEADS DINK EXAMINATION
Turkish Daily News
July 25 2008
Turkey
ISTANBUL – TDN with wire dispatches
Ramazan Akyurek, head of the Istanbul Police Department’s intelligence
unit, stands accused of misleading officials investigating
the department on charges of negligence following the murder of
prominent Turkish Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, a newspaper
reported yesterday.
Allegedly, Inspector Å~^ukru Yıldız, during his examination of
the Istanbul Police Department, asked whether police had responded
following notification from the Trabzon Police Department on Feb. 17,
2006 that Yasin Hayal, now one of the murder suspects, had planned to
kill Dink, daily Milliyet reported. In that notification, the Istanbul
Police Department was also told of Hayal’s plans to come to Istanbul
and stay at his brother’s home.
The intelligence unit of the Istanbul Police Department replied, in
March, that it had taken no action regarding this notification. In his
report, Yıldız further stated that the Istanbul Police Department
only carried out its first examination of computer records of Hayal’s
brother, Osman Hayal, three days after Dink was murdered, concluding
that the police had neglected their duty.
However, another investigation was initiated after police officials
objected to Yıldız’s report. Inspector Akif Ä°kbal then found that
the first computer record by Istanbul police, about the notification
from the Trabzon police, was made Feb. 20, 2006. Ä°kbal, in his report,
stated that the answer provided by the intelligence unit of the
Istanbul Police Department had misled Yıldız. Akyurek was reported
to have placed his signature under the answer sent to Yıldız.
Akyurek was the police chief in the Black Sea province of Trabzon
between 2004 and 2006, during which time major crimes occurred in the
city including the murder of Catholic priest, Andreas Santoro, by a
teenager and the bombing of a McDonalds restaurant by Hayal. It is
further reported that Akyurek had used Erhan Tuncel, another suspect
in Dink’s murder, to supply his department with information.
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