Epress.am News from Armenia
A Turkish administrative court on Monday annulled an earlier Interior Ministry decision to demote Ramazan Akyürek, the former head of the National Police Department’s intelligence department, over his alleged negligence in protecting Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, reports Today’s Zaman.
Akyürek, who was at the helm of the intelligence department at the time, was demoted by the Interior Ministry after allegations emerged that he was among a number of police officers who had failed to prevent the assassination of the Turkish-Armenian journalist despite having credible evidence that it was imminent.
Nineteen suspects are currently facing trial in the Dink murder case. A majority of the suspects, including the hitman, are from Trabzon, whose police department says it had informed the İstanbul Police Department about the plot to kill Dink on more than one occasion.
Lawyers representing the co-plaintiffs in the Dink trial have long alleged that the murder was the doing of Ergenekon, a clandestine group charged with plotting to overthrow the government.