Police chief's murder stuns Turkey
A distinguished police chief from Rize was gunned down by a disgruntled officer, while Turkish media focused today on the possibility that the country's two main opposition parties may get behind a unified candidate for Ankara's mayoral elections in March.
ANKARA, Turkey — The murder of a distinguished chief of police, shot in his office today, stunned Turkey, a country with an unhappy tradition of reaching for guns to settle even minor disputes.
Altug Verdi, 46, ran the Emniyet Mudurlugu (security headquarters) in Rize, a city of 150,000 people on the Black Sea coast of northwest Turkey in a province famed for its tea plantations. He had worked with the UN peacekeeping forces of Kosovo and Haiti and served in Turkey’s consulate in Jerusalem, the prime ministry in Ankara and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT).
