Leader of Turkish nationalist party criticized Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Sahin for her proposal to declare Armenian journalist Hrant Dink a martyr.

Head of Nationalist Movement party Devlet Bahceli slammed authorities for their plans to declare civilian a martyr, T24 website reports.  

Earlier the Minister said in case Dink’s family applies to the province’s authorities, Dink may be declared a martyr by the decision of the commission.

Hrant Dink, chief editor of the bilingual Armenian-Turkish Agos newspaper, was killed near his office in Istanbul on January 19, 2007 by Turkish ultranationalist Ogun Samast.