Tehran Times, Iran
Jan 20 2007

Turkish Armenian writer shot dead

ANKARA (BBC) — A well-known Turkish Armenian editor convicted of
insulting Turkish identity has been shot dead in Istanbul.

Hrant Dink, editor of newspaper Agos, was shot three times by an
unknown gunman outside his offices.

Dink was given a six-month suspended sentence in October 2005 after
writing about the Armenian "genocide" of 1915.

Turkey’s NTV television said police were searching for a teenager
wearing a white hat and a denim jacket in connection with the murder.

The channel showed pictures of a white sheet covering the
journalist’s body in front of the newspaper building’s entrance.

Dink, 53, had received threats from nationalists who viewed him as a
traitor, the Associated Press news agency reported.

He was one of Turkey’s most prominent Armenian voices.

He once gave an interview with the Associated Press in which he cried
while describing the hatred some Turks had for him, saying he could
not stay in a country where he was unwanted.

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in 1915, in what many
Armenians say was a systematic massacre at the hands of the Ottoman
Turks.

Turkey denies any genocide, saying the deaths were a part of World
War I.

Turkey and neighboring Armenia still have no official relations.