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ISTANBUL, JANUARY 22, ARMENPRESS:“The killing of an Armenian-Turkish editor in Istanbul last week and the sorrow it has generated within Turkey are leading to rare conciliatory gestures between Turkey and Armenia, historic enemies, and to calls for changes in laws here defending Turkish identity,” a story in The New York Times said. It said on Monday, Armenian political and spiritual figures accepted an invitation from the Turkish government to attend the funeral of Hrant Dink, the founder of an Armenian-Turkish newspaper, who was killed outside his office on Friday, apparently by a young nationalist fanatic. Mr. Dink was a staunch defender of free speech and like other intellectuals was prosecuted for insulting “Turkishness” and sentenced to six months in jail, though his term was suspended. Bulent Arinc, the parliamentary chairman from the ruling Justice and Development Party, said he would back efforts to abolish the measure under which Mr. Dink was prosecuted, known as Article 301. “It can be discussed to totally abolish or completely revise the Article 301,” Mr. Arinc said, adding that members of Parliament “are open to this.” Despite the fact that the Armenian-Turkish border has been sealed since 1993 and diplomatic relations severed, Armenia has sent a deputy foreign minister, Arman Kirakossian, to the funeral, and the archbishop of the Armenian Church of America, Khajag Barsamian, also accepted the government’s invitation to the ceremony. Most Armenian Turks live in Istanbul, the diverse and cosmopolitan center of Turkey. But the antinationalist demonstrations that followed Mr. Dink’s killing also surfaced in places as diverse as Izmir, the Aegean coastal city that is Turkey’s third largest, and in Sanliurfa and Hatay, which are close to Turkey’s eastern border with Syria. “Public opinion in both countries, weary of the years-long conflict, had reached a point of explosion,” said Kaan Soyak, a director of the Turkish- Armenian Business Development Commission, the only bilateral trade council of Turkish and Armenian executives. “That’s what lies behind the massive outpouring for Mr. Dink.” Mr. Dink was labeled as a target among nationalist groups on their Web sites. Orgun . Samast, the suspect, read and was influenced by those postings, according to the Anatolian news agency. Seven other suspects were also being detained over the weekend, including Yasin Hayal, who served 11 months in jail for the bombing of a McDonald’s restaurant in Trabzon in 2004. Hayal, a known nationalist, is suspected of having a history of Islamic militant activity. He attempted to join the rebels in Chechnya but was turned away at the border. But many here still blame Article 301 for Mr. Dink’s death and see it as an obstacle to freedom of speech in Turkey.