AKI: TURKISH NATION AS A WHOLE MOURNS HRANT DINK'S ASSASSINATION - THOUSANDS JOIN SLAIN JOURNALIST'S FUNERAL MARCH

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TURKISH NATION AS A WHOLE MOURNS HRANT DINK'S ASSASSINATION - THOUSANDS JOIN SLAIN JOURNALIST'S FUNERAL MARCH

Istanbul, 23 Jan. (AKI) - Tens of thousands of people have taken part in a funeral march in Istanbul on Tuesday to commemorate prominent Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink who was shot dead in the city last Friday. A calm crowd gathered along the march's 80-kilometre route from the downtown offices of Dink's Agos newspaper to the Balikli Armenian cemetery in the city's Yenikapi district, where he was due to be buried. Mourners dressed in black carried placards that read "We are all Hrant Dink" in Turkish and Armenian. Occasional rounds of applause could be heard, Turkish news agency Cihan said. At the start of the march, mourners crammed into the square outside the Agos newspaper offices, where Dink's coffin had been brought from the Armenian Virgin Mary Church. Dink's wife, Rakel, addressed those gathered and repeated an earlier request to the crowd not to shout slogans or tout placards during the funeral procession. She bade her husband farewell saying: "We will be reunited in heaven," Cihan reported. After her speech, Dink's family released white doves - a symbol of peace. Turkish foreign minister and deputy premier Abdullah Gul, state ministers and Mehmet Ali Sahin, were due to attend the funeral as well as several EU officials. The murder of Dink, a moderate proponent of the rights of Turkey's Armenian ethnic minority has raised EU concerns on freedom of speech in Turkey.

Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy in connection with the shooting of Dink, 54, who was hit last Friday afternoon by four bullets in front of the offices of Agos, the bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper he edited. The suspect, Ogun Samast, a native of the conservative city of Trabzon, was picked up on a bus 32 hours after the murder when his father recognised him from TV images and notified the police. He has confessed to Dink's murder and said he did not regret it.One of the suspects is a friend of Samas, Yasin Hayal, who spent 11 months in jail for a 1994 bomb attack at a McDonald's restaurant in which six people were injured. Hayal and Samas spoke on the phone before the shooting, Cihan reported.