Ali Gaffar Okkan (1952 – January 24, 2001) was a
Turkish police chief who was assassinated in an ambush in
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province.
Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...
, southeastern Turkey.
Early life
Ali Gaffar Okkan was born in
Hendek
Hendek is a town and a district of Sakarya Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. The municipality was founded in 1907. The mayor of the city is Ali İnci ( AKP).
Notable natives
* Gaffar Okkan (1952–2001), assassinated police chief
* Sü ...
,
Sakarya Province
Sakarya ( tr, ) is a province in Turkey, located on the coast of Black Sea. The Sakarya River creates a webbing of estuaries in the province, which is in the Marmara Region. The adjacent provinces are Kocaeli to the west, Bilecik to the south ...
in 1952. He graduated from Police College on September 30, 1970, and attended the
Police Academy
A police academy, also known as a law enforcement training center, police college, or police university, is a training school for police cadets, designed to prepare them for the law enforcement agency they will be joining upon graduation, or othe ...
in
Ankara
Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...
. He completed his education on September 29, 1973.
Career
Okkan was commissioned in the rank of
Assistant İnspector ( tr, Komiser yardımcısı) to Izmir Police Directorate, where he served in many posts until he was then promoted to
Superintendent
Superintendent may refer to:
*Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank
*Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator
*Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...
( tr, Emniyet amiri) with his appointment to
Şanlıurfa
Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa () and in ancient times as Edessa, is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphrates River. Its climate features ...
in 1983. He became
Chief superintendent
Chief superintendent is a senior rank in police forces, especially in those organised on the British model.
Rank insignia of chief superintendent
File:Sa-police-chief-superintendent.png, South Australia Police
File:RCMP Chief Superintendent.pn ...
( tr, Şube amiri) in 1985. Later in 1986, Okkan was appointed to
Eskişehir
Eskişehir ( , ; from "old" and "city") is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 898,369 with a metropolitan population of 797,708. The city is located on the banks of the ...
on the post of the
General Directorate of Security. He was promoted to the rank of Assistant Commissioner ( tr, Emniyet Müdür Yardımcısı or ''2. Sınıf Emniyet Müdürü'') in 1992. On December 6, 1993, Okkan finally became Commissioner ( tr, 1. Sınıf Emniyet Müdürü), the second-highest position in the hierarchy of the police organization in Turkey, and took office as Police Chief in
Kars Province
Kars Province ( tr, Kars ili; ku, Parêzgeha Qersê; hy, Կարսի նահանգ) is a province of Turkey, located in the northeastern part of the country. It shares part of its closed border with Armenia. The provincial capital is the city of ...
, eastern Turkey.
Gaffar Okan's next assignment as police chief was to Diyarbakır, where there had been a prolonged
insurgency
An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irr ...
by the
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...
(PKK) and
Kurdish Hezbollah, and which had seen considerable emigration.
Serving in Diyarbakır
Soon after his arrival in Diyarbakır, a center of conflict with Kurdish separatists and guerillas,
he made an announcement on
police radio
Police radio is a radio system used by police and other law enforcement agencies to communicate with one another. Police radio systems almost always use two-way radio systems to allow for communications between police officers and dispatchers.
...
: "From 3310 (Okkan's badge number) to HQ. Since two days, I have been on inspection in the city, and I realize that my colleagues have no sense of duty. This is my first and last warning." This announcement was a sign of what he was not, the sort of his predecessor police chiefs. One of his first official activities before assuming office was to unblock the street in front of the police headquarters, which was barred to civilians for security reasons.
He soon also lifted the security roadblocks within the city
and installed
surveillance camera
A closed-circuit television camera can produce images or recordings for surveillance or other private purposes. Cameras can be either video cameras, or digital stills cameras. Walter Bruch was the inventor of the CCTV camera. The main purpose o ...
s covering critical locations in the city for crime prevention. Okkan used to observe the streets of Diyarbakır on the giant monitor in his office during the evening.
In the chaotic atmosphere of Diyarbakır, police officers preferred to stay in the office for so-called "desk duties", since going out on the streets was seen as very risky. Okkan sent all police officers, male and female, out on the streets, asking them: "What are we afraid of?" He instructed his subordinates to treat the town's citizens with kindness and affection.
Social activities
The
policewomen in Diyarbakır went for the first time with his order in public, and controlled traffic in the city. He deployed two patrolling
police cars each occupied with two female officers. The one was tasked to pick up runaway children or to search for lost children, and to deliver them to their parents. The other team helped out the walking-handicapped elderly. Policewomen at the
Diyarbakır Airport
Diyarbakır Airport is a military airbase and public airport located in Diyarbakır, Turkey.
Overview
Diyarbakır Airport is home to the 8th Air Wing (''Ana Jet Üs'' or ''AJÜ'') of the 2nd Air Force Command (''Hava Kuvvet Komutanligi'') of th ...
used to undertake the boarding operations for the elderly, and to escort them to the exit gate. Okkan induced the airport authority to purchase wheelchairs and to put them in service.
In that time, the citizens of Diyarbakır were not accustomed to meet uniformed officers in the streets. They deemed the police consisted of
anti-riot vehicles and
batons. However, the new police chief was determined to show the good side of the police. This behaviour astonished the people much. The citizens, who almost did not encounter the former police chiefs, met Okkan frequently. They liked him more and more when they got to know him. In a very short time, Okkan managed to create confidence, and made the people believe in his objectives. His motto was "We are for the people. I was ordered to protect life, possessions and honor of the citizens. Here, I came for that."
The football club of Diyarbakır,
Diyarbakırspor
Diyarbakırspor is a Turkish professional football club located in the city of Diyarbakır. Formed in 1968, they are nicknamed ''Diyar'' ("land"). Their colours are red and green, and they play their home matches at Diyarbakır Stadium.
Diyarb ...
, had hard times. A fan of the local club, Okkan used to attend all of their home matches without missing any. During the game, he acted as if he was the club's president, not as the police chief, and took care of the team. He used to hug the players and to run around the field with the club flag in the hand for
celebration after a goal scored by the home team.
Fighting terrorism
While Okkan made a significant impression on the citizens through his social projects
assisting, among others, the elderly, disabled and runaways, critics insisted such activities exceeded the scope of his duties. However, the
public relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...
specialist did not forget his main duty as a member of
law enforcement
Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules
Rule or ruling may refer to:
Education ...
.
His primary target was the illegal fundamentalist pro-Islamic Kurdish Hezbollah,
which is not related to its namesake group in
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
. Violent acts by Kurdish Hezbollah were directly mainly at the group's opponents, including PKK sympathisers.
On January 17, 2000, the Kurdish Hezbollah's leader
Hüseyin Velioğlu was killed in his villa at
Beykoz
Beykoz (), also known as Beicos and Beikos, is a district in Istanbul, Turkey at the northern end of the Bosphorus on the Anatolian side. The name is believed to be a combination of the words bey and ''kos'', which means "village" in Farsi. Bey ...
,
Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
during a raid by the police forces. Okkan played a major role in the crackdown against the Kurdish Hezbollah,
in which hundreds of group members were arrested,
and more than 150 bodies of murdered victims were found throughout the country.
He proved that several unsolved murders had been committed mostly by Hezbollah rebels rather than by security forces.
His colleagues and close friends began to warn Okkan to ride in an armored car. He declined such recommendations with the words "What would the citizens do when I ride an armored car?" One week before his death, he released a list of 26 Hezbollah hitmen at a press conference.
And, 45 minutes before the attack on him, he stated in an interview with a journalist that he is not afraid of the Hezbollah.
He once said nobody could kill him in Diyarbakır or in his hometown Hendek because the citizens would protect him.
Assassination
On January 24, 2001, Gaffar Okkan left his office at the headquarters for a meeting with the Province Governor Cemil Serhadlı. Around 17:40 local time, as he was underway in his official car escorted by police cars, the convoy was ambushed by unidentified gunmen in a distance of less than from the headquarters
in downtown at Sezai Karakoç Boulevard between the Meat & Fish Corp. ( tr, Et ve Balık Kurumu) building and Eflatun Park.
The assailants opened fire with long-barrel rifles and killed Okkan.
Three police officers were killed at the spot, two other officers died in a hospital.
Four officers were wounded during the attack.
The gunmen opened also the door of Okkan's car, and fired a couple of times at
point-blank range
Point-blank range is any distance over which a certain firearm can hit a target without the need to compensate for bullet drop, and can be adjusted over a wide range of distances by sighting in the firearm. If the bullet leaves the barrel para ...
in order to be sure of his death.
There was no mobile phone communication between the assailants, who fled rapidly.
Almost 20 bullets hit the police chief’s head.
The names of the officers died in the attack were given as Sabri Gün, Mehmet Sepetçi, Atilla Durmuş, Selahattin Baysoy, Mehmet Kamalı and of the officers wounded as Nuri Bozkurt, Mustafa Dince, Veli Göktepe and Fatih Gökçek.
It was reported that one of the assailants was apparently injured in the following shootout with police.
469 empty
Kalashnikov cartridges were found at the crime scene, fired from 16 different rifles.
Police searched the area extensively for perpetrator,
and detained several suspects.
No militant group claimed responsibility for the assassination.
However, the attack was attributed to the Hezbollah, as the main suspect, from which Okkan had received death threats.
Following a state memorial in Diyarbakır,
where he was appointed three years ago,
Okkan's corpse was transferred to his hometown, and laid to rest in Hendek. He was survived by his wife Zerrin Okkan and daughter Sezin Okkan.
Aftermath
Okkan's death caused deep sorrow among the citizens of Diyarbakır.
A
condolence book was placed in the police headquarters. A marketplace salesman wrote in the book "For the first time in our life, we witnessed a police chief gave his mobile phone's number. Can you imagine I felt myself also as a police chief, so comfortable when I visited him in his office without any cause?"
The next day, thousands of mourning Turks and Kurds gathered for an apparently spontaneous mass demonstration in the city to protest the assassination, chanting slogans condemning the attack.
The people marched to the governor's office building, where they held a
moment of silence
A moment of silence (also referred to as a minute's silence or a one-minute silence) is a period of silent contemplation, prayer, reflection, or meditation. Similar to flying a flag at half-mast, a moment of silence is often a gesture of ...
, paying their tribute before the coffins of the murdered police officers draped in Turkish flag.
In a press meeting held in
Konak Square,
Izmir, the
People's Democracy Party
People's Democracy Party ( tr, Halkın Demokrasi Partisi, HADEP) was a Kurdish population, Kurdish political party in Turkey. Murat Bozlak founded the party on 11 May 1994. The party disbanded in 2003.
History
Bozlak's first chairmanship
P ...
(HADEP), a
Kurdish nationalist
Kurdish nationalism (, ) is a nationalist political movement which asserts that Kurds are a nation and espouses the creation of an independent Kurdistan from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
Early Kurdish nationalism had its roots in the Ottoman ...
political party, condemned the assassination, demanded immediate capture of the attackers, and insisted the
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
set up an investigative committee.
During the
Ergenekon trials
The Ergenekon trials were a series of high-profile trials which took place on 2008–2016 in Turkey in which 275 people, including military officers, journalists and opposition lawmakers, all alleged members of Ergenekon, a suspected secularist ...
in August 2008, a former member of PKK, who became a
turned-informant, claimed that
JİTEM
Jandarma İstihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele or Jandarma İstihbarat Teşkilatı (abbr. ''JİTEM'' or ''JİT''; English: "Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism" or "Gendarmerie Intelligence Organization") is the unofficial and illegal intel ...
(for Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism), a secret illegal unit formed under the
gendarmerie, had carried out the 2001 assassination. He gave the rationale that JİTEM could operate in the region easily before Okkan's appointment. He added that Kurdish Hezbollah had never attacked a state official before, even though they had been investigated by Okkan.
In 2011, a police officer, who was wounded in the 2001 attack as one of Okkan's guards, also suspected JİTEM of staging the assassination.
The investigation culminated with the apprehension of two suspects who were later tried before Diyarbakır's 5th High Criminal Court and, in 2010, found guilty of involvement in the assassination. The court further stated that the attack was prepared a long time before by professional killers and that the planners as well as their connection abroad could not be traced back.
Legacy
Following the assassination, many families in Diyarbakır named their newborn sons Ali Gaffar or Gaffar Okkan, after their city's much-beloved public figure.
In 2011, 101 namesake boys from Diyarbakır visited Okkan's grave in Hendek to pay respect to him in a memorial ceremony in presence of Okkan's wife and daughter on the 10th anniversary of his death as part of a project called "Journey of Hearts: Martyr Ali Gaffar Okkan, A Story of Brotherhood".
Educational institutions named after him across the country are primary schools in
Yüreğir, Adana,
Odunpazarı, Eskişehir,
and
Hendek, Sakarya,
a highschool in Yenişehir, Diyarbakır
and a police college also in Diyarbakır.
Many streets bear his name, including in
Büyükçekmece, Istanbul,
Başakşehir, Istanbul,
Esentepe, Istanbul,
Gölbaşı, Ankara
Gölbaşı is a town and district of the Ankara Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, south of the city of Ankara. According to a 2010 census, the population of the district is 95,109, 93,852 of whom live in the town of Gölbaşı.
...
,
Buca, Izmir,
Ceyhan, Adana,
Gürsu, Bursa,
Tepebaşı, Eskişehir,
Balıkesir
Balıkesir () is a city in Turkey and is the capital city of Balıkesir Province. Balıkesir is located in the Marmara region of Turkey and has a population of 338,936. Between 1341–1922, it was the capital of Karasi.
History
Close to ...
,
Gebze, Kocaeli,
Derince, Kocaeli,
Hendek, Sakarya,
Turgutlu, Manisa,
Atakum, Samsun,
Fethiye, Muğla,
Çiftlikköy, Yalova,
Kars,
Siirt
Siirt ( ar, سِعِرْد, Siʿird; hy, Սղերդ, S'gherd; syr, ܣܥܪܬ, Siirt; ku, Sêrt) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the seat of Siirt Province. The population of the city according to the 2009 census was 129,188.
History
P ...
and further a neighborhood in
Salihli, Manisa.
Public parks with his name are found in Küçükçekmece, Istanbul
and
Kartal, Istanbul.
A police station in Odunpazarı, Eskişehir
and a sports complex in Kars
are named also in his honor.
See also
*
List of unsolved murders
These lists of unsolved murders include notable cases where victims were murdered in unknown circumstances.
* List of unsolved murders (before 1900)
* List of unsolved murders (1900–1979)
* List of unsolved murders (1980–1999)
* List of u ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okkan, Gaffar
1952 births
2001 deaths
2001 murders in Turkey
2001 murders in Asia
2001 murders in Europe
Assassinated police officers
Assassinated Turkish civil servants
Deaths by firearm in Turkey
Male murder victims
People from Hendek
Turkish police chiefs
Turkish police officers killed in the line of duty
Unsolved murders in Turkey
January 2001 events in Turkey
20th-century Turkish architects