Clashes In Ankara As Turkey Remembers Dink Murder

People hold signs reading :We are all Armenian, we are all Hrant" during a rally to mark the eighth anniversary of his murder in front of the Agos newspaper in Istanbul on January 19.

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

Thousands of people had marched though central Istanbul earlier on January 19 in a peaceful demonstration to remember the killing that sent shock waves around the country.

Dink, 52, was shot dead on January 19, 2007.

Seventeen-year-old Ogun Samast confessed to the murder and was sentenced to almost 23 years in jail in 2011.

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

Dink had long pushed for a reconciliation between Turks and Armenians.

Armenians accuse Ottoman forces during World War I of carrying out a genocide against their forebears that left an estimated 1.5 million people dead.

Turkey has vehemently resisted terming the mass killings as genocide.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP