ISTANBUL—A key suspect in the murder of Turkish Armenian editor Hrant Dink, whose funeral attracted 100,000 people, apparently threatened on Wednesday another intellectual—Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk.
Yasin Hayal, handcuffed and escorted by police under heavy security shouted "Orhan Pamuk should be careful" as he was taken to an Istanbul court house over the killing of Dink last Friday.
Hayal, a known nationalist militant, served 11 months in jail for the 2004 bombing of a McDonald's restaurant in his home town Trabzon on the Black Sea. He has admitted to inciting his friend Ogun Samast, 17, to kill Dink.
In the same court house a judge ordered Samast to be sent to Bayrampasa prison while the prosecution prepares charges against him. It was not immediately clear whether Hayal and four other suspects also in detention were sent to the same prison.
Samast, who is reported to have been close to an ultranationalist group in his home town Trabzon, has confessed to killing Dink for "insulting" Turks over his writings and statements on the massacres of Armenians during World War One.
The murder of Dink, who worked for reconciliation between Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks, has triggered a heated debate in Turkey about the impact of extreme nationalism.
Dink had been prosecuted for his views on the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. He was among intellectuals, including Pamuk, who have been prosecuted under laws restricting freedom of expression in EU-applicant Turkey.
Nationalists
Turkish nationalists, including some senior politicians, regard the intellectuals' calls for Turkey to own up to its role in the massacres as a threat to national security and honour.
"This murder revealed some truths which we undoubtedly all have to think about, firstly the government and politicians, as well as the media," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told a news conference.
"We have to think about how we are bringing up our youth."
Samast said in a four-page statement to police, obtained by state-run Anatolian news agency, that he had carried Dink's photograph for several months and had practised shooting for several days before travelling to Istanbul. He said he had also received money for the killing.
Murder carries a life sentence in Turkey, but as a minor Samast would face a sentence of some 18-24 years if found guilty. Media reports said tests were being carried out to confirm that he is under 18 years old.
Turkish newspapers said police had detained a student in Trabzon on suspicion of involvement in the killing and published a photograph of him with the leaders of an ultranationalist political party amid media speculation about nationalist links to the plot.
Dink's funeral on Tuesday was attended by ministers, foreign diplomats, Armenian government officials and many of Turkey's 60,000-strong Armenian community and the Armenian diaspora.
But Turkish media criticised the country's political leadership for failing to attend the funeral, one of the largest in recent years.
On Wednesday Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan visited the family of Dink to pay his respects. He also met Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II to offer his condolences.
Turkey denies claims by Armenia and other countries that 1.5 million Armenians died in a systematic genocide at Turkish hands, saying large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks perished during the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.
