Ayhan Çarkın (born 1962, Erzurum) is a Turkish policeman who is reported to have played a controversial role in the Susurluk scandal.

The leader of the Special Operations Department (Turkish: Özel Harekât Dairesi), İbrahim Şahin, named Çarkın as the most fearless policeman he had ever met.

Specifically, he was part of the elite Police Special Operation Teams department (Turkish: Özel Tim) that was responsible for assassinating businessmen suspected of financially supporting the PKK.

Çarkın's associates included Ayhan Akça, Oğuz Yorulmaz, Ercan Ersoy, and the notorious Abdullah Çatlı.

[1] Three (excluding Çatlı) were detained but released on the orders of the chief of police, Mehmet Ağar, and transferred to become bodyguards for another key figure in the scandal, Sedat Bucak.

Çarkın alleges that deputies in the Yılmaz administration offered him a passport to enable him to flee, but he refused, since he believed he was innocent.

He alleges that the state, using the clandestine Ergenekon network, colluded with militant groups such as the PKK, Dev-Sol, and Hezbollah, with the goal of profiting from the war.