Thousands mark anniversary of Hrant Dink murder in Turkey

Turkish police used pepper spray and water cannons to disperse a protest in Ankara calling for justice over the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead in broad daylight outside his office eight years ago.

Thousands of people marched though central Istanbul earlier on Monday in a peaceful demonstration to remember the killing, which sent shockwaves around the country.

Holding signs in Turkish, Armenian and English reading "Justice for Hrant", protesters in Istanbul had earlier rallied around the offices of the Agos newspaper, a bilingual Turkish and Armenian weekly, which he edited.

Twenty people were arrested as police used pepper spray and water cannons to disperse the protest in central Ankara Monday evening, CNN-Turk and Radikal news website reported. 

One of the most prominent Armenian voices in Turkey, Dink, 52, was shot dead with two bullets to the head in broad daylight outside the Agos offices on 19 January 2007.

Ogun Samast, then a 17-year-old jobless high-school dropout, confessed to the murder and was sentenced to almost 23 years in jail in 2011. He said he killed Dink for insulting “Turkishness".

Dink had long pushed for a reconciliation between Turks and Armenians after decades of bitterness.

Armenians accuse Ottoman forces of carrying out a genocide during World War I that left an estimated 1.5 million people dead, something that Turkish officials vehemently deny.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the tragedy and the date appeared to give the Dink memorial march additional impetus.

Police chief arrested for negligence

Dink's murder grew into a wider scandal after it emerged that the Turkish security forces knew of a plot to kill him, but failed to act.

On Monday, an Istanbul court ordered the arrest of a Turkish police chief, who was suspected of negligence in Dink's murder case, hours after he surrendered to the Ankara police department.

Ercan Demir was brought to Istanbul’s fifth penal court, where he was charged with “deliberate negligence" for allegedly failing to act on intelligence that could have prevented the murder.

Demir was police chief in Turkey’s Trabzon province, where the murderer, Samast, reportedly came from.

High-profile figures who were questioned about the case last month included former Istanbul Vice Governor Ergun Gungor, former Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah and former Istanbul police intelligence unit chief Ahmet Ilhan Guler.

Last week, Turkey also arrested two lower-ranking policemen on charges of negligence for failing to prevent the murder.

Supporters of Dink's family have long feared that those behind the murder were protected by the state and have asked for a deeper investigation.