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, 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 (HADEP), a Kurdish nationalist political party, condemned the assassination, demanded immediate capture of the attackers, and insisted the parliament set up an investigative committee. During the Ergenekon trials in August 2008, a former member of PKK, who became a turned-informant, claimed that JİTEM (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