ISTANBUL, Turkey - More than 100,000 mourners choked the streets of Istanbul for the funeral Tuesday of an Armenian journalist whose slaying sparked debate about freedom of expression and whether Turks of different ethnic groups can live together.
"We are all Armenians!'' chanted mourners in an extraordinary outpouring of affection for editor Hrant Dink, who had made enemies among nationalist Turks by labelling as genocide the mass killings of Armenians toward the end of the Ottoman Empire.
Dink was gunned down in broad daylight Friday outside his bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper, Agos.
The throngs virtually shut down central Istanbul as they marched eight kilometres from the Agos offices to an Armenian Orthodox church for the funeral. Many participants carried placards that read: "We are all Hrant Dinks.''
The 52-year-old journalist's daughter, Sera, held a framed portrait of her father and shed tears as she walked in front of the black hearse carrying the coffin.
Mourners took off from work and school to join the procession, and thousands leaned out of their office windows to applaud, weep and throw flowers as the hearse passed.
Despite a request from his family not to turn the funeral into a protest, many also raised their fists at times shouting: "Shoulder to shoulder against fascism!'' and "Murderer 301!'' -- a reference to the law that was used to prosecute Dink and others on charges of "insulting Turkishness.''
Through his newspaper, Dink sought to encourage reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia. But he chose a dangerous path by making public statements about the mass killings of Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century. Those remarks landed him in court and drew death threats.
Comments on that tumultuous period of Turkish history have landed several of Turkey's most famous thinkers in court.
Among them was novelist Orhan Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize in literature last year. The prosecutions have alarmed the European Union, which is considering Turkey's bid to join the bloc, but until Tuesday, there were few rallies in favour of freedom of speech.
The liberal outpouring, if it gains momentum, could have significant implications for democratic movements in the Islamic world, where demonstrations against terrorism and other acts of violence have been muted.
Police were questioning seven suspects in the slaying, including a teenager, Ogun Samast, who authorities said has confessed to the shooting, and Yasin Hayal, a nationalist militant convicted in a 2004 bomb attack at a McDonald's restaurant. Hayal has confessed to inciting the slaying and providing a gun and money to Samast, police said.
The suspects also include a university student who allegedly "inspired'' the attack, Hurriyet newspaper reported Tuesday. Police confirmed the report.
A firm motive has yet to be established, but many believe Dink was killed for expressing his views.
Dink, one of the most important voices in Turkey's ethnic Armenian community, insisted he wanted reconciliation between the two peoples.
"I had no intention of insulting Turkishness,'' he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview months before his death. "My only concern is to improve Armenian and Turkish relations.''
He seemed to have achieved that to a certain extent in death: Turkey has no diplomatic ties with Armenia, but it invited Armenian officials and religious leaders to the funeral along with moderate members of the diaspora.
Armenia sent Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosian. The Armenian Orthodox Church sent U.S-based Bishop Khazkah Parsamian.
"Hrant Dink was a great advocate in the country for freedom of speech and for reconciliation, in particular between Armenians and Turks,'' U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson told the AP. "Judging by what you see on the streets, he did bring the people together.''
In an emotional speech to the crowd in front of the Agos office, Dink's widow, Rakel, called for a deeper search for answers to the killing.
"Whoever he was, the murderer was once a baby,'' she said. "Unless we can question the darkness that turned this baby into a murderer, we cannot achieve anything.''
At the funeral service attended by Armenians and Turks, including Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin and Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu, Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II called for more freedom of speech and dialogue between Turks and Armenians.
"It is mystical that his funeral turned into an occasion where Armenian and Turkish officials gathered together. He would have been happy to see this turn into real dialogue,'' Mesrob said, weeping during part of his eulogy.
