Controversial name in Dink case named Cizre police chief

A Trabzon intelligence police chief, who was accused of negligence in the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink in 2007, has been assigned to the Cizre district of the southeastern province of Şırnak as chief of police, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Ercan Demir was assigned to the Cizre police chief post after four people were killed in the district in clashes between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and members of the Free Cause Party (Hüda-Par).

Demir was the police intelligence chief in Trabzon in 2007 and is accused of having a role in the murder of Dink, failing to monitor the murderers despite receiving notices about the planned assassination, according to Dink’s family lawyer, daily Evrensel reported on Jan. 5.

“Ercan Demir has responsibility in the murder of Hrant Dink. It is a grave decision that such a person is assigned as the police chief to Cizre,” Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, the lawyer of Dink family was quoted as saying by daily Evrensel.

According to the presidential inspectors’ report, Demir failed to monitor “Yasin Hayal and his group” when he was the head of the Trabzon police intelligence unit.

In 2008, Dink’s family demanded the court listen to Engin Dinç and Ercan Demir, two police intelligence officials in Trabzon, adding their names to the witness list as part of the investigation. The court accepted the demand at the time.

Four people were killed in Cizre on Dec. 27, 2014 in street battles between the PKK and Hüda-Par. The street battles came more than two months after clashes in Turkey’s eastern and southeastern provinces led to the deaths of about 40 people.