<b>Turkish-Armenian Journalist Shot Dead</b>

ISTANBUL, Turkey, Jan. 19, 2007 (CBS/AP) A journalist who faced constant threats and protests as one of the most prominent voices of Turkey's shrinking Armenian community was shot to death Friday at the entrance to his newspaper's offices, police said.

Hrant Dink, a 53-year-old Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, had gone on trial numerous times for speaking out about the mass killings of Armenians by Turks at the beginning of the 20th century. He had also received threats from nationalists, who viewed him as a traitor.

In October 2005, he was convicted of trying to influence the judiciary after the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper he edited, Agos, ran stories criticizing a law making it a crime to insult Turkey, the Turkish government or the Turkish national character.

He was given a six-month suspended sentence.

The conviction was rare even in a country where trials of journalists, academics and writers have become common. Most of the cases, including that of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, were either dropped on a technicality or led to acquittals.

Dink cried during an interview with The Associated Press last year as he talked about some of his countrymen's hatred for him, saying he could not stay in a country where he was unwanted.

"I'm living together with Turks in this country," Dink told the AP. "I don't think I could live with an identity of having insulted them in this country ... if I am unable to come up with a positive result, it will be honorable for me to leave this country."

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Dink's death as an attack against Turkey's unity and promised to catch those responsible.

Erdogan said two suspects had been arrested, but offered no details.

"Once again, dark hands have chosen our country and spilled blood in Istanbul to achieve their dark goals," Erdogan said at a news conference.

The prime minister said he had assigned top officials from the Justice Ministry to the case and that they were on their way to Istanbul from the capital, Ankara.

Can Dundar, Dink's friend and fellow journalist, said he wished Dink had left the country as he once promised he would in the face of the threats, protests and legal proceedings against him.

"Hrant's body is lying on the ground as if those bullets were fired at Turkey," Dundar told private NTV television.

Turkey's relationship with its Armenian community is fraught with tension and painful memories of a brutal past. Much of Turkey's once-sizeable Armenian population was killed or driven out of the country from 1915-1923 in what an increasing number of countries are recognizing as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died but vehemently denies it was genocide, saying the overall figure is inflated and the deaths occurred in the civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey, which is overwhelmingly Muslim, and Armenia, which claims to be the first country to official adopt Christianity, share a border, but it is closed and the two countries have no formal diplomatic relations.

Dink's body was covered with a white sheet in front of the newspaper's entrance. NTV said four empty shell casings were found on the ground and that he was killed by two bullets to the head.

Workers at the newspaper, including Dink's brother, who has

Who ever did that or who ever planned that is the biggest traitor
These dark stuff always happens at important times like these.Like the assasination of Ugur Mumcu

I think I'l be in the intellignce when I'm grown,this is really dark stuff

The worst thing is that it's really hard to expalin what this is
But it really saddens me that this
"hrant dink, who was convicted last year of insulting the turkish state, was assassinated outside his office."is true but wrong at the same time

Wow Swhitebull congratulations on finding another way to bash Islam

First of all no one in Turkey thinks this is a simple nationalist or extreme islamic guys attack
Most of the um...well educated people thinks this is something deeper just like assasination of Ugur Mumcu or other people who plays a lot with secrets
Some thinks this is a simple fascist(well these guys are currently happy of his death)
Some thinks he is  a simple extremereligious(cultist) guy who is aganist secularism.There were several attacks aganist secularism in the last 30 years
Some thinks this is done by outher powers to stop Turkey from joning EU or to make it lose prestige(well we sure lost)
Some thinks he is working for Armenia-the aim of the assasination was to show Turks as killers,to make us seem like we're killing people who do not agree us
or maybe it was because of other political reasons
These are all conspiracies but as I said it's not a simple thing

Since this not a good thing for Turkey at all,a person who loves this country WOULDN'T do such a thing

Oh and no one in Turkey(except fascists-low number) is happy because of this
We lost a democracy defender

And the way media shows this to world,well it's urely wrong or details are wrong!

BTW again everbody is suspicious about the real killer
Maybe they just caught the wrong guy to hide something
or maybe it was simply a brainwashed kid(actually he is 1 year older than me)

Well since you do not live in Turkey I can not explain these to you
Turkey is a multicultural and multireligious country
The people living in Turkey calls themselves Turks,just like me.We speak Turkish and we have Turkish cultures
But ethnically we're not Turks.I mean not 100/100 percent
for e.g I'm a mixture of Turk,Rum(Byzantine),Persian and Bulgarian
Just look at USA,is there a race called American?no but they're together
Just like us,the real Turks are in central asia

Anyway there are people from various religions in this country
No one kills them
The reason of this assasination is DEFINETLY not religion.You do not know this country,no one kills other because of their beliefs(there are exceptions of course)


and don't beleve everything you hear,althought it maybe right I haven't heard anything like"kafiri vurdum(i shot the infidel)"
Actually it is though that this guy is from an organisation which is aganist secularism
Another guy from this org has killed a high ranking secular government guy last year

But there is not point in killing this guy for religion.I believe it was for destroying Turkeys reputation or maybe for helping Armenians for more support
Or maybe these are communist seperatist Kurds(PKK) who wants to destory the union

Those Judaist Turks are Khazars
Khazaks are Turkic yes ture

Rum(Roman) meant Anatolia.2.Mehmed declared himself Kayzer-i Rum after taking Istanbul.It means Roman emperor
.Romanians are different but there are many Romanians in Turkey either