Armenian Conference in Istanbul & Turkish Researcher in Yerivan

[1.5 million]

Keep on believeing your lies and distoritions Bugra that no one but an indoctrinated turk and their paid supporters espouse and I will keep pitying you...

Each and every one of your items is patently false as stated.

[mustafa mert]

books older than 50 years can not be taken out of armenia???? why??? 50 years means they are new and actual...are u hiding something over there there is only one single antique thing in armenia..its your hate

[Bugra]

Message is Clear

No Comment
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Turkish Scholar Arrested In Armenia For ‘Smuggling’ Bid

By Gayane Danielian

A Turkish scholar who researched Ottoman history in Armenia’s state archives has been arrested on charges of attempting to smuggle old Armenian books seen as cultural treasures by law-enforcement authorities out of the country.

The National Security Service (NSS) said in a statement late Friday that Yeftan Turkyilmaz, 33, was detained at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport as he was about to board a plane bound for Istanbul. The statement said he carried undeclared Armenian-language books about history, religion and geography published from the 17th to 19th centuries.

The security agency described them as “literature of high historical and cultural value.” Under Armenian law such items can not be taken out of the country without a permission from the Ministry of Culture.

Turkyilmaz, who spent more than one month in Armenia, was charged under an article of the Armenian Criminal Code that carries heavy fines and up to five years in prison. The NSS refused to officially comment on the case. But sources there told RFE/RL that the Armenian successor to the Soviet-era KGB is unlikely to seek a jail sentence for the Turkish national.

A doctoral student at the Duke University in North Carolina, Turkyilmaz became last month the first Turkish historian who sought and was given access to the Armenian National Archive. In an interview with RFE/RL, he said he is working with documents relating to activities of Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian nationalist parties during the final decades of the Ottoman Empire.

Armenian officials portrayed Turkyilmaz’s presence as proof that the Armenian archives have always been open to Turkish researchers. Turkey’s government has repeatedly urged Yerevan in recent months to make documents kept in the available to them as part of its push for a joint Turkish-Armenian study of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

Turkyilmaz suggested on May 11 that he became the first Turk to work with the archives because very few of his colleagues in Turkey speak Armenian.

It is not clear how the scholar got hold of the old books. He was said to be experiencing financial difficulties and enjoyed discount fees for accessing archival materials. The National Acrhive director, Amatuni Virabian, said he thinks Turkyilmaz did not deliberately break Armenian laws or regulations.

“He showed interest in books and I gave him a few [recently published] books,” Virabian told RFE/RL. “But I didn’t know that he bought old books. You can transport anything except arms and drugs out of Turkey. I guess the guy thought things are the same here.”

“In any case, we are now in a silly situation,” he added.

Keep on believeing your lies and distoritions Bugra that no one but an indoctrinated turk and their paid supporters espouse and I will keep pitying you...

Each and every one of your items is patently false as stated.

[Gavur]

Mother Pleads For Turkish Scholar's Release From Armenian Jail

Monday, 8 August, 2005


Mother Pleads For Turkish Scholar's Release From Armenian Jail

By Ruzanna Khachatrian

The mother of a Turkish researcher facing up to eight years in prison
for attempting to take old books out of Armenia pleaded with the
authorities in Yerevan on Monday to set him free and end his
controversial prosecution.

Gulsin Turkyilmaz spoke to RFE/RL after visiting her 33-year-old son
Yektan in a maximum security prison in Yerevan where he has been kept
since his arrest on June 17. `I hope that they won't imprison him,' she
said. `If he knew that [he is violating Armenian laws] he wouldn't do
that.'

`Yektan would never do any harm to this country,' she added.

Turkyilmaz was allowed to see his mother the day before the start of his
trial which is expected to be attended by representatives of Duke
University in North Carolina where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Ottoman
history. The unusually harsh charges leveled against him have drawn
protests from U.S. academic circles, prominent Turkish intellectuals and
a retired pro-Armenian U.S. senator.

The first Turkish academic to be granted access to Armenia's national
archives, Turkyilmaz is prosecuted under Article 215 of the Armenian
Criminal Code that calls for between 4 and 8 years' imprisonment for the
contraband of anything ranging from antique books to weapons of mass
destruction. He was detained at Yerevan's Zvartnots airport while
boarding a plane bound for Istanbul.

Turkyilmaz, who is fluent in Armenian and several other foreign
languages, carried 88 Armenian books which he bought or was presented
with in Yerevan. Seven of those books, including a 17th century Bible,
were particularly old and required government permission for being taken
abroad. The doctoral candidate told investigators and his mother that he
was unaware of that requirement.

`After all, books like that are available for sale in Armenia,' one of
his Armenian attorneys, Vartuhi Elbakian, told RFE/RL.

`Yektan bought them without violating the law,' argued the other lawyer,
Hrair Ghukasian.

Individuals detained while trying to smuggle cultural treasures have
rarely been imprisoned in Armenia. Such cases usually end in heavy fines
and the confiscation of those artifacts.

Sources familiar with the case claim that Armenia's National Security
Service (NSS) considered charging Turkyilmaz with espionage before
bringing the draconian smuggling accusations. The NSS has refused to
divulge any details of the investigation before the trial.

Turkey's government has still not officially commented on the
prosecution of the Turkish national. Turkyilmaz is among few Turks who
have publicly challenged Ankara's vehement denial of the 1915-1923
genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

In Elbakian's words, a leading Turkish pro-establishment daily referred
to the scholar as `a friend of the Armenians' shortly after his arrest.
`We are worried that if he is freed and returns to Turkey he could face
prosecution there,' the lawyer said.

Meanwhile, the case is gaining a growing international resonance, with
more than 200 scholars from the United States, Turkey and Armenia
reportedly having signed an open letter to President Robert Kocharian
that calls for their colleague's immediate release. The letter warned
that his imprisonment could `raise serious doubts as to whether Armenia
encourages independent scholarly research on its history.'

Among its signatories are Turkish historians Taner Akcam, Murat Belge,
Halil Berktay as well as publisher Ragip Zarakolu and one of Turkey's
most famous novelists, Orhan Pamuk. They have all described the mass
killings of Ottoman Armenians as a genocide despite threats and
condemnation from the Turkish establishment.

"As the leader of a great country, you have the ability to intervene in
this matter and to determine the appropriateness of the actions of your
government and the Armenian prosecutors and police," the Duke University
president, Richard Brodhead, said in separate message to Kocharian last
week.

Adding his voice to the outcry on August 2 was Bob Dole, a former U.S.
Senate majority leader and Republican presidential candidate known for
his staunch advocacy of Armenian issues. In a strongly-worded letter to
Kocharian posted on Groong.com, he demanded that Turkyilmaz be released
`at once,' saying that the Criminal Code article used against him is
`unique in the community of free nations.'

Dole warned that failure to release Turkyilmaz would further tarnish
Yerevan's already negative image in the West. `Your detention of Yektan
for seven weeks on any grounds would draw attention to failings in
Armenia's democratic evolution,' he said. `To detain him on grounds as
dubious as these calls into question Armenia's commitment to democracy
in the first place.'

`Your treatment of Yektan makes Armenia look bad -- with good reason,'
he added. `Armenia has many friends in the United States, but we cannot
and will not defend the indefensible.'

[Reincarnated Am]

If this guy is really who he says he is, no one would ever talk or be concerned about him, I think there’s much to it.
How come when Armenian pilots were in jail in Equatorial Guinea Mr. Bob Dole never raised a voice or a finger to help them?

[AnnFrankenstein]

Try smuggling antiques out of turkey and see what happens.

[imported_anoush]

If this guy is really who he says he is, no one would ever talk or be concerned about him, I think there’s much to it.
How come when Armenian pilots were in jail in Equatorial Guinea Mr. Bob Dole never raised a voice or a finger to help them?

IMO, it is either a LIE and the Doles never said such a thing OR they are suffering from old timers', I mean Alzheimer's disease.

[Hovik]

I believe Yektan is guilty of the crime, but I think the Armenian Authority has done a terrible job in handling the situation. I do know from private sources that he has been held comfortably in a datcha outside Yerevan. However, knowning the sensitivity of the situation, couldn't the Armenian Authority have sped up the process a little?

[Gavur]

Turkish Citizen Only Accepts Charge Of Attempted Smuggling

TURKISH CITIZEN ONLY ACCEPTS CHARGE OF ATTEMPTED SMUGGLING

YEREVAN, AUGUST 12, NOYAN TAPAN. Ektan Turkyilmaz, a Turkish citizen,
accepted partly the charge brought against him. Responding a question
asked in the court, he stated at the August 12 court sitting that he
accepts a charge of attempted smuggling but not a charge of smuggling.

"My guilt might have come from ignorance of the Armenian laws, I never
intended to break the Armenian laws and do any harm to the Armenian
people," the accused said. The witness Hayk Meliksetian, a customs
employee at Zvartnots Airport, stated that there is a list of items
subject to declaration at the entrance of the customs zone, and any
citizen carrying an item indicated in the list must go through the
so-called red zone. The Turkish citizen, however, went through the
green zone. In the witness's words, E. Turkyilmaz was just "ignorant
of the law." Several booksellers, from whom the Turkish citizen had
purchased books, testified in the court. In particular, the witness
Babken Sakanian said that E. Turkyilmaz was interested in books of
the 1600s-1700s and made purchases (in drams) of a total of 3,200
dollars. Another bookseller Arsen Harutyunian confirmed his
preliminary evidence, according to which the Turkish citizen was
showing interest in books on the Armenian Genocide, Armenology as well
as books printed early. According to the witness, E. Turkyilmaz
admitted the fact of the Armenian Genocide in a private talk they
had. The accused made a gesture in the courtroom showing that he
recognizes the Armenian Genocide. The witnesses will continue
testifying at the next court sitting on August 15. To recap, on June
17, 2005, the employees of the RA national security bodies found, as a
result of operative measures at Zvartnots Airport, 110 books printed
in the 17-20 centuries, manuscripts, maps, magazines, brochures,
including 89 ones of historical and cultural value, in the luggage of
Ektan Turkyilmaz, a Tirkish citizen of Kurdish descent, 33, a
post-graduate student at the "Duke" University, who was going to take
a Yerevan-Stambul flight. He made an attempt to smuggle the
abovementioned items out of Armenia, trying to hide them from customs
control.

[Gavur]

Turkish Scholar Insists On His Innocence In Court

Turkish Scholar Insists On His Innocence In Court

By Emil Danielyan

A Turkish scholar facing up to eight years in prison for trying to take
old books out of Armenia insisted on his innocence in a Yerevan court on
Friday as prosecutors pressed the unusually harsh smuggling charges
leveled against him.

Yektan Turkyilmaz, who was arrested at Yerevan's Zvartnots airport
almost two months ago, pleaded not guilty to the most serious of the
accusations and reiterated that he was unaware of an Armenian law that
requires a government permission for the export of such books and other
`cultural values' from the country.

`I did not aim to violate the laws of the Republic of Armenia or to
inflict any damage on Armenia or the Armenian people,' the 33-year-old
Ph.D. student of the U.S. Duke University told a district court in
Yerevan hearing the controversial case. He admitted having made some
`mistakes' but said they were not intentional.

However, the trial prosecutor, Koryun Piloyan, stated in his opening
remarks that Turkyilmaz knew about the legal requirement and lied to
Armenian customs officers as he checked for a Yerevan-Istanbul flight on
June 17. `He committed a crime defined by Section 2 of Article 215 of
the Armenian Criminal Code,' Piloyan said, referring to a clause that
calls for between four and eight years' imprisonment for the smuggling
of cultural artifacts, narcotics, firearms and even weapons of mass
destruction.

The National Security Service (NSS), the Armenian successor to the
Soviet-era KGB which conducted the pre-trial inquiry, confiscated from
the scholar 89 Armenian-language books published more than 50 years ago.
The prosecution estimates their total value at 2.1 million drams
($4,600). Seven of the books, including two 17th century Bibles, are
said to be particularly rare.

That the ex-KGB was instrumental in Turkyilmaz's arrest and prosecution
was confirmed at the trial. It emerged that NSS officers stopped
Turkyilmaz and had customs officers double-check his baggage just as he
was about to board the Istanbul-bound plane. It is not clear what
prompted them to do that. The Turkish national had already passed
customs and passport control and checked in his two suit cases where
most of the books were later found stashed.

The very fact of NSS agents checking a foreign passenger is
extraordinary in itself. Sources familiar with the case told RFE/RL
earlier that the security agency initially suspected Turkyilmaz of
espionage but lacked the evidence to prosecute him on relevant charges.
Piloyan refused to comment on the claims. The prosecutor also said NSS
officers involved in the arrest will not testify at the trial.

The court cross-examined instead several traders from a popular souvenir
market in Yerevan from whom Turkyilmaz bought the books. They all said
they are not quite familiar the existing procedures for the export of
artifacts and could not give the buyer appropriate advice. Babken
Sakanian, who sold Turkyilmaz the seven most valuable books for a total
of $3,200, said he heard about the passage earlier this year of
Armenia's Law on the Export and Import of Cultural Values but still has
`no idea' about its provisions.

The law stipulates that any book printed more than 50 years ago has a
high `historical and cultural value' and can not be taken out of Armenia
without a written authorization of the Ministry of Culture. The
prosecution maintains that Turkyilmaz was aware of the requirement.

Piloyan pointed to the pre-trial testimony by the owner of an antique
shop in the city center which the defendant repeatedly visited in June.
The man, Armen Khorenian, said in it that he warned Turkyilmaz of the
need to have such a permission. But Khorenian appeared to contradict his
written account during Friday's cross-examination in the court. `It is
very possible that Yektan didn't understand what I meant,' he said.

The prosecutor's claims were also in conflict with the court testimony
of one of the customs officers that questioned Turkyilmaz at the
Zvartnots airport. `It seemed to me that he is not familiar with the
law,' Hayk Stepanian said. He added that foreigners generally lack
knowledge of Armenian customs regulations.