Turkey arrests suspect in death of Armenian editor

ISTANBUL/ANKARA, Jan 21 (Reuters) Turkish police arrested the suspected killer of a prominent Turkish-Armenian writer who had angered nationalists with articles referring to a Turkish ''genocide'' of Armenians.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he was pleased the suspect had been arrested in such a short time.

''The suspected murderer of Hrant Dink, Ogun Samast, was caught in Samsun yesterday,'' Erdogan told a news conference.

Erdogan said it was too early to say whether Samast had links to any organisations and the police investigation was continuing.

Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said Samast, a 17-year-old unemployed youth from the Black Sea coastal town of Trabzon, and six other people also detained would be brought to Istanbul for questioning.

Police arrested Samast after his father informed authorities that the picture shown on television was his son.

Dink was the editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos and Turkey's best known Armenian voice abroad. He was shot in broad daylight as he left his office in Istanbul on Friday.

''I am declaring once more as an answer to provocateurs who have blood on their hands that bullets fired at Hrant Dink were fired at all of us,'' Erdogan told his AK Party earlier.

''We are aware of our responsibility as the government and we're making this a priority ... Hrant Dink was a son of this land.'' Newspapers criticised the government for failing to protect Dink despite a series of threats made against him. They said racism and nationalism, which is on the rise ahead of elections in May and November, were ultimately to blame for his death.

Dink, 52, was a Christian of Armenian descent. He was frequently criticised by Turkish nationalists, including top politicians and prosecutors, for saying the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One was genocide.

Nationalists see such comments as a threat to national unity. The government of Turkey, which is predominantly Muslim, denies genocide was committed and says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in large numbers as the Ottoman Empire was breaking up.

RARE UNITY The softly spoken Dink received a suspended six-month jail term in 2005 for ''insulting Turkey's identity'' in an article that discussed Armenian nationalist ideas of ethnic purity.

Despite his record of breaking taboos, his murder produced rare unity among leading politicians and papers.

The front page of the leading liberal daily Milliyet read ''Hrant Dink is Turkey''.

Armenia, which has a border but no diplomatic ties with Turkey, expressed shock and urged Turkey to find the killers.

The deputy leader of Turkey's nationalist MHP party, Mehmet Sandir, blamed Dink's death on the Armenian diaspora, the state Anatolian news agency reported.

The killing again raised questions about how far Turkey has come in addressing issues facing minorities and freedom of expression as it applies to join the European Union.

Turkey was criticised abroad last year for prosecuting Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk over his comments on the massacre of Armenians. His trial later collapsed.

''Hrant Dink symbolised tolerance. Those who shot him have no idea that they also shot Turkey,'' leading Turkish commentator Mehmet Ali Birand wrote in the Turkish Daily News.

REUTERS MQA BST0628