
Erol Birkan was a German policeman who served in the Berlin Police during the 2010s.
Biography[]
Erol Birkan was born in the Kaiserwarte district of Berlin, Germany to a Turkish family. Birkan was neighbors with Hakim Tarik-Amir, who bullied him during his youth, and he had a relationship with Hakim's future wife Kamila before coming out as gay. Birkan was estranged from his father due to his homosexuality and his acceptance of German culture, and he was mentored by the Turkish community leader Canberk Karaca (who was also gay) and later entered into a relationship with the businessman Guido Mack. Birkan joined the Berlin Police as a means of escaping from his working-class neighborhood, and much of his work involved combating drug trafficking, especially by the Tarik-Amir clan, his former neighbors. In 2017, he began an 18-month-long investigation into Hakim Tarik-Amir's drug trafficking operations, culminating in a 2018 raid which was a spectacular failure, with Birkan's colleague Rafika Masaad being injured by falling through a hole trap hidden under a carpet, and Tarik-Amir not being found in possession of a large drug shipment he was supposed to have smuggled from Rotterdam. Birkan was reassigned to investigate the murder of footballer Orkan Erdem to make up for the failed operation and boost his career, although he was initially uninterested due to his focus on the Tarik-Amirs. However, homicide squad leader Gert Seiler told Birkan that his advocacy for legalizing cannabis and his position on the drug squad were a mismatch, and that he needed a presentable Turk to publicly lead the investigation into Erdem's death, subtly blackmailing Birkan into working with Kurt Grimmer in finding the culprit for the murder.
While Birkan had a record of growing cannabis at his home, he was otherwise straight-laced, and he grew suspicious of Grimmer's intentions during the investigation, especially after noticing Grimmer pocket confiscated Kovac clan money during a raid, after Grimmer pressured Birkan's informant Murad Issam to implicate Tomo Kovac in the murder of the bookkeeper Sascha Fruehm, and due to Grimmer's frequent homophobic and racist insults against him. Birkan was soon approached by the journalist Karsten Nguyen, who demanded tips from Birkan, or else he would publicize the "contradiction" of Birkan's homosexuality and his Turkish ethnicity. Birkan fed him information on Grimmer's neo-Nazi past, and, after Birkan tailed Grimmer to a meeting of the Marzahn Brotherhood and helped save him from a beating by the Nazis, Nguyen exaggerated the strength of the alt-right in Berlin. Birkan also had troubles of his own, such as when his attempt to broker peace between the Tarik-Amir clan and the Kovac clan by entering the "no-go zone" of Kreuzberg resulted in an awkward confrontation with Kamila and then with Hakim Tarik-Amir, and in the gruesome murder of Canberk. Birkan later tailed Grimmer to the home of the pensioner Albert Meiser, who was discovered to have been Erdem's real murderer, but Grimmer detained Birkan and forced him to listen to his plot: they would temporarily cover up Meiser's guilt, utilize the resources of Operation Red Card to take down Berlin's major gangs, and eventually reveal Meiser's guilt once the heat had died down. Birkan was initially uninterested, but, after a Tarik-Amir hit squad nearly killed him as he headed to meet with Murad Issam at his apartment, Birkan decided that his vengeance against the Tarik-Amir clan could only happen if he went along with Grimmer's plan. He helped to frame Kareem Tarik-Amir for Erdem's murder and participated in the massive police raid on Kreuzberg on Hakim and Kamila's wedding day, arresting the Tarik-Amir brothers and many of their henchmen. Afterwards, he and Grimmer shook hands, deciding to move on from the traumatic events of that year.