Police intelligence chief fired in Turkey during investigation of Hrant Dink’s murder

Turkey's government has removed the police intelligence chief of Istanbul as part of an investigation into the killing of an ethnic Armenian journalist in the city last month, for reportedly ignoring a tip about the planned attack one year ago, newspapers said Tuesday.

Photo: Police intelligence chief fired in Turkey during investigation of Hrant Dink’s murder

The Interior Ministry suspended intelligence chief Ahmet Ilhan Guler on Monday evening following the Jan. 19 killing of Hrant Dink. The 52-year-old journalist had angered Turkish nationalists with repeated assertions that the mass killings of Armenians around the time of World War I was genocide, the AP reports.

Daily Sabah newspaper reported on Tuesday reported that Guler was suspended for not reporting a tip to his superiors which came 11 months before the deadly attack.

More than 100,000 people marched at Dink's funeral, many of them chanting for Turkey to abolish a repressive article in the penal code used against many intellectuals, including Dink, who spoke openly on controversial topics.

It is a crime to insult Turkey or the Turkish national character.

Turkey's government pledged an investigation "at full speed" into Dink's killing and his government removed the governor and police chief of Trabzon, the city on the Black Sea coast that is home to suspects in the murder. Several other police officers were also suspended for posing with the 17-year-old killer after his capture in the Black Sea port city of Samsun.