Turkey remembers murdered journalist - CNN.com By Ivan Watson, CNN January 19, 2012 -- Updated 1311 GMT (2111 HKT) Supporters of slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink hold up his pictures during a demonstration in Istanbul, on January 17, 2012. Hrant Dink was gunned down outside his newspaper in 2007 Scoccer player was convicted, but accused accomplices are set free Crowd of thousands calls for justice Istanbul (CNN) -- Thousands marched silently on a bitterly cold day through downtown Istanbul Thursday to commemorate the five year anniversary of the murder of an ethnic Armenian journalist. Police blocked off traffic as the crowds moved towards the offices of the Armenian language Agos newspaper. On January 19, 2007, the newspaper's editor in chief Hrant Dink was gunned down in broad light on the sidewalk outside the newspaper's offices. A 17-year-old Turkish ultra nationalist soccer player was caught with the murder weapon and later convicted of the killing. But on Tuesday an Istanbul court attracted condemnation from members of the Dink family as well as human rights groups when 19 suspected accomplices in the murder where all acquitted of charges of being members of a terrorist organization that plotted the assassination. A Parliament member from Turkey's ruling party added to the chorus of criticism Thursday in a newspaper column describing the trial as a "disgrace." The crowd of thousands called for justice in the Dink trial, many of them carrying portraits of the murdered journalist. Before his murder Dink was on trial for "insulting Turkishness" because he referred to the 1916 massacre of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenian as genocide. He also said in multiple interviews he received death threats in the months leading to his killing. Meanwhile, the convicted killer, Ogun Samast, was treated like a hero after his capture by some Turkish police officers. The officers filmed themselves standing alongside the suspect in front of a Turkish flag.