Teenager shot editor for insulting Turks

An unemployed teenager told investigators he shot dead Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink because he had insulted Turks, broadcaster CNN Turk reported yesterday.

The killing has shocked Turkey and raised questions about the country's tolerance for minorities and freedom of expression as it seeks to join the EU.

Police caught Ogun Samast, 17, carrying a gun at a bus station in the Black Sea coastal town of Samsun on Saturday, a day after Mr Dink was shot in broad daylight outside his newspaper office in Istanbul.

"I read on the Internet that he (Dink) said 'I am from Turkey but Turkish blood is dirty' and I decided to kill him... I do not regret this," CNN Turk quoted Mr Samast as saying.

Mr Dink was a respected but controversial figure who promoted reconciliation between Turks and Armenians but also called on Turkey to recognise its role in massacres of Armenians during WWI.

Turkish nationalists saw such comments as an insult to national honour.

"Those who carried out a campaign against him, those who declared him an enemy of the Turks and pinned him as a target are responsible for his death," Turkish Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk was quoted as saying by state Anatolian news agency.

Samsun's chief prosecutor Ahmet Gokcinar confirmed to Anatolian news agency that Mr Samast had confessed.

Mr Samast and six other suspects are being questioned in Istanbul, police said. One suspect, Yasin Hayal, served 11 months in jail for the bombing of a McDonalds restaurant in Trabzon in 2004, Vatan daily said.

Newspapers demanded authorities leave no stone unturned in investigating the latest in a series of politically motivated murders in Turkey.

Mr Dink, 52, was a Christian of Armenian descent and editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos.

He was frequently criticised by nationalist Turks, including politicians and prosecutors, for describing the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide. The once-influential Armenian community in Turkey has dwindled to some 60,000 people.

Last year, Turkey upheld a six-month suspended jail sentence against Mr Dink for "insulting Turkey's identity" in his writings on Armenians and Turks.