Two key police chiefs removed from duty

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Two Istanbul police officials in key positions have been removed from their posts as one of the investigations they have been leading spreads to the country’s intelligence agency.

Istanbul Police Department’s Intelligence Director Erol Demirhan and Anti-Terror Department Director Yurt Atayün were removed from their posts yesterday.

An official statement said the two directors were not suspended and were only being reassigned to different positions. Istanbul Police Chief Hüseyin Çapkın told reporters yesterday that the reassignments were “routine process.”

The decision came on the same day National Intelligence Agency (MİT) Chief Hakan Fidan, his predecessor Emre Taner and former MİT Deputy Chair Afet Güneş, who have all been involved in talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), were invited to testify in the ongoing probe into the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the alleged urban wing of the PKK.

Both Demirhan and Atayün were in charge of directing a probeinto the KCK, as well as several other important probes including those into alleged coup plans, such as the Ergenekon and Balyoz.

Ömer Köse, who was the director of the Financial Crimes Department, was appointed as the head of the Anti-Terror Department while Serdar Güldalı, who was the deputy director of Istanbul Police Department’s intelligence service, was appointed as the director.

Demirhan was the target of a complaint by Hanefi Avcı, a former police chief who is under arrest in connection with the Oda TV trials. In a complaint he filed before being arrested last year, Avcı had argued Demirhan was the name that ordered the wiretapping of high-ranking bureaucrats.