Controversial figure involved with Armenian-Turkish journalist Dink trial gets promotion

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

Journalist Hrant Dink was killed on Jan 19, 2007, in central Istanbul.

Engin Dinç, who was reportedly involved in employing an Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink murder suspect as an intelligence provider, was promoted to the head of the police intelligence, according to sources.

Dinç was responsible for employing Erhan Tuncel, the suspected inciter of the murder, during his time in Trabzon Police Department. He was employed in Afyon police intelligence agency at the time of the murder, however, and was later on called on to court to testify during the Dink murder trial.

Dinç had been summoned to the Turkish Parliament’s Human Rights commission as well, stating that he had been instructed that Tuncel would be provided for, defining his move as an “intelligence technique.”

Dinç replaced Ömer Altıparmak, who was sent to a post abroad.

Dink, the renowned chief editor of Agos, was shot in front of his office in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007. Following a five year trial, the court had ruled on Jan. 17, 2012, that it saw no “deep state” role in the plotting of the assassination, despite serious claims that a number of civil servants were “indirectly” involved. The ruling was overturned a year later by the Supreme Court of Appeals, which led to prosecutors restarting their probe into the murder.