Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan pledged today to tackle the "provocateurs" behind the death of a writer who had angered nationalists with his articles referring to a Turkish "genocide" of Armenians.
Hrant Dink, editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos and Turkey's best known Armenian voice abroad, was shot in broad daylight as he left his office in Istanbul yesterday.
"As a nation we are facing an open and heinous provocation. I am declaring once more as an answer to provocateurs who have blood in their hands that bullets fired at Hrant Dink were fired at all of us," Mr Erdogan told his AK Party.
"We are aware of our responsibility as the government and we're making this a priority ... Hrant Dink was a son of this land." There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Turkish television today released pictures of the suspected killer - a young man with a trimmed beard.
Newspapers said nationalism and racism were ultimately to blame for Dink's death. Dink (52) and a Christian, was a frequent target of Turkish nationalists, including some 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. 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.
"Those who created nationalist sentiment in Turkey have fed such a monster that there are many youngsters on the streets who do not find the ... state nationalist enough and are ready to take the law into their own hands," wrote Ismet Berkan in his column in Radikal, one of Turkey's main dailies.