Quick Facts
Biography
Şükrü Balcı (1929, Divriği - 6 May 1993, USA) was a Turkish high-ranking civil servant and police chief. He was the Istanbul Chief of Police from 1979 to 1983 (a period including the 1980 Turkish coup d'état), and previously deputy chief from 1977. He is believed to have had links with the Turkish mafia.
In the late 1970s Balcı was arrested for suspected arms smuggling; but this did not appear to harm his career. According to Turkish-Kurdish drug lord Hüseyin Baybaşin, Balcı was at the time the most important state official involved in controlling the transshipment of heroin through Turkey. Balcı was mentioned in Mehmet Eymür's 1987 MIT Report on links between police, politicians and the mafia, and reports into the state-mafia connections revealed by the 1996 Susurluk scandal also mentioned Balcı. In 2013 it was decided to rename the Turkish Police Academy, which had been named for him in 1995.