A newspaper editor and leading figure in one of Turkey's most painful historical deb-ates - the massacre of Armenians - was shot dead yesterday.

Hrant Dink, 53, was shot three times in the head outside the offices of Agos, a weekly newspaper, in Istanbul. He died almost immediately. His murder brought swift condemnation from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, who sent the interior and justice ministers to the city as an investigation started.