The New York Times has an optimistic report on the aftermath of Dink’s murder of the type that I’m sure we’ll be reading more of in the coming days. I’m sure that it is in this spirit that Dink would want to be remembered. I can only hope that Dink will be remembered and honoured by Armenian and Turk alike.

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.

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.

[…]

Dink was a staunch defender of free speech and like other intellectuals was prosecuted for insulting “Turkishness” and sentenced to six months in jail but 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 Dink was prosecuted, known as Article 301. I can only hope that the same tone is struck here in Yerevan in less than an hour. That will be a fitting tribute to the life and death of Hrant Dink.

“It can be discussed to totally abolish or completely revise the Article 301,” 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 is to send a deputy foreign minister to the funeral.

Earlier, the Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisyan called for improved relations so that Armenia could “establish ties with Turkey with no preconditions,” the Turkish news channel NTV reported.

High Turkish government officials are to attend the funeral.

[…]

The funeral is shaping up to be far more than a farewell to a popular though controversial figure. The fact that the government is permitting it to take place on a grand scale is another sign of a change.

A wide boulevard in the heart of Istanbul’s main commercial district will be closed to traffic as the funeral cortege gathers outside the offices of the newspaper where Mr. Dink was shot.

The mayor of the district, Mustafa Sarigul, said the local government will hand out carnations and release hundreds of pigeons as a symbol of peace. Mr. Dink once said, “I may see myself as frightened as a pigeon, but I know that in this country people do not touch pigeons.”

[…]

“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.”

Artyom at iArarat posts just one example of the conciliatory tone expressed by Turkey’s national press. The Turkish blogosphere has also pretty much struck the same note.