Turkish Researcher Arrested In Armenia

[Arpa]

WOW!!

 

I am impressed and gratified. When you find the source of the said quote above, namely the TW, observe how much ink is devoted to Armenian affairs. As I have indicated on many occasions the Turk is running ragged with the nightmare we are causing them.

 

The old Armenian adage goes; The fly may be small but it will cause a big stomach upset".

 

Shoo fly!!!

 

Bzzzzzz!!!

[mamigon]

"i don't think this subject is taboo" Hmm, can't agree with you there. My experience has been that the only people who want to talk about this are either rabid anti-Tashnags who want to paint all Tashnags as Nazis or Nazi wannabes or on the other side knee-jerk Tashnags who will defend whatever their heroes did just because they are their heroes. Neither side is of any use at all in getting to the truth of the matter. And at any rate discussing it is not the same as researching it. To my knowledge there has been no non-partisan investigation of the topic. Now, of course, the Turks and their stooges have free rein to make of it what they will -- what scholarship do we have to counter with? (I know: even when the scholarship exists in abundance the Turks and their stooges make of it what they like.) In the end, though, I have a hard time thinking one can ever be too harsh about people who chose to fight for the Nazis.

there were also alot of good people that collaborated with nazis, wore their uniform with swasticas on them, at a given moment supported them, but they saved countless innocent lives.

 

btw i don't think this subject is taboo, and no need for aura plz. There's nothing to hide in this subject. it's been discussed countless of times.

 

sure i wish too that they'd not take the nazi side, but i think you're little too harsh

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[hytga]

In the end, though, I have a hard time thinking one can ever be too harsh about people who chose to fight for the Nazis.

there were also alot of good people that collaborated with nazis, wore their uniform with swasticas on them, at a given moment supported them, but they saved countless innocent lives.

do you agree with this?

[mamigon]

I have to admit that I don't have a good answer to that. First, I don't know that there were a lot of these situations, but perhaps there were. Second, there is the issue of balancing possible lives saves through collaborating versus other lives lost due to the same collaboration. I mean, is it okay that Dro saved Armenian lives (or tried to) by collaborating if this resulted in the loss of Russian lives or Polish lives or whatever? Are Armenian lives to be given a higher value in this case, so that anything done ostensibly to save Armenians is worthwhile? If in the end, the act of collaborating has a positive result and no negative results then I guess it can be justified. But how often could this be the case?

 

do you agree with this?

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[hytga]

Second, there is the issue of balancing possible lives saves through collaborating versus other lives lost due to the same collaboration.

let's not argue about the merits of war and deaths during war. Obveously dro knew that to free armenia from soviet rule he had to wage his own war killing russans, soviets. that's the essence of war. whether he sympathysed with nazis is a different issue (i don't think he did)

[gamavor]

Were the books from the Matenadaran, or did he purchase them privately from an Armenian?

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That is immaterial. What is of interest to the prosecution is his intent (animus) and his knowledge which I'm almost certain he had, given that he doesn't fall down from Mars - most likely a 17 century book should and would be regarded as a cultural heritage. Given the purpose of his visit to Armenia (note that he was not a stupid tourist, but a history researcher), we can safely conclude that he must go to jail. The case is closed.

 

Robert Dole would do better if he devotes his time and energy to save the poor Kurdish attorney who dared to say that what happened to Armenians was Genocide.

[DominO123]

let's not argue about the merits of war and deaths during war. Obveously dro knew that to free armenia from soviet rule he had to wage his own war killing russans, soviets. that's the essence of war. whether he sympathysed with nazis is a different issue (i don't think he did)

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You are overestimating Dros power in WWII. I don't see how with a limited number of mEn(hardly reaching over 20 thousand) dissolved through the Caucasus and elsewhere, Dro could have attempted to "free" Armenia, or even attempting to wage his own war by killing Russians. Dro would have been the first to probably land in Turkey, had the German such plans. It was Russia, not Turkey, because it was the Soviet and not Turkey, Germans eternel enemy at that time. Beside, it's like you're dragging yourself into a debate just to protect Dro of something.

[hytga]

no don't get me wrong. i just tought mamigon was too harsh in criticising him for serving in the nazi army. Whether dros contribution was big or small doesn't matter, he foght for his principles.

 

i'm not really interested for a debate in this subject, but i also don't want people demonising historical figures.

 

as i said i think too his move to join nazis was a bad one, but i don't think they should be demonised this way

 

anyway i'm done with this subject, i said what i wanted to say.

Edited August 11, 2005 by hytga

[phantom22]

INSIDE HIGHER EDUCATION-Online Higher Education News

 

Far Away Trial

 

Academics and human rights advocates are warily monitoring a trial unfolding in an Armenian courtroom, in which a Duke University doctoral student from Turkey faces up to eight years in prison for allegedly taking used books out of the country illegally.

 

Scholarly groups, which have waged a campaign to defend him, fear the smuggling charges are a subtext for the Armenian government to crack down on a researcher who is studying a politically sensitive period in the country’s tangled history with Turkey.

 

Yektan Turkyilmaz, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in cultural anthropology at Duke, in May became the first Turkish citizen to request and receive access to the Armenian National Archives, where he sought information for his dissertation, “Imagining ‘Turkey,’ Creating a Nation: The Politics of Geography and State Formation in Eastern Anatolia, 1908-1938.”

 

Turkyilmaz is said to be one of a handful of Turkish scholars who have critically assessed the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman in 1915 and 1916, which Armenians and most scholars have long characterized as genocide, and the means by which Turkey took control of the eastern region of the country known as Anatolia.

 

On June 17, according to the Social Science Research Council (which supports his work with a field grant) and the Science and Human Rights Program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, authorities at Yerevan Airport in Armenia pulled Turkilman off an airplane as he prepared to leave the country. They seized in the neighborhood of 100 books that he had bought at secondhand stores and compact disks that contained the fruits of his research in the Armenian archives.

 

He was held without bail for nearly a month before being charged, on July 21, with violating an article in the Armenian Constitution that bars transportation out of the country of drugs, nuclear weapons and certain “raw materials or cultural values” without prior permission. According to the scholarly groups’ reports, Armenian customs regulations require travelers to declare books that are at least 50 years old, as seven of Turkyilmaz’s books reportedly were.

 

Turkyilmaz’s supporters say that if he violated the customs policy, he did so unknowingly, and that he is being far more harshly than the charges warrant. They say that the first few days he was held in custody were dominated by interrogation about his research and his political convictions, and that the Armenian authorities pored over his archival material, which arguably had nothing to do with the alleged book smuggling.

 

The arrest, the AAAS said in its report on the case, “sends a negative signal that Armenia does not encourage independent scholarly research into its history.”

 

More than 200 academics from around the world signed a letter to Armenia’s president urging that Turkmilyaz be released and his archival materials returned. Richard H. Brodhead, the president of Duke, where Turkmilyaz is a John Hope Franklin Institute fellow, sent a similar letter, in which he called Turkmilyaz a “scholar of extraordinary promise.” “His exceptional command of many languages is, I am told, unique among scholars of this period and gives him an equally unique opportunity, therefore, to help illuminate this critical historical period,” Brodhead wrote.

 

He added: “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. You also have the ability to release Mr. Turkyilmaz. With respect, I urge you to do so.”

 

International PEN, the writers’ group, issued an alert on Turkyilmaz’s behalf, and the former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Bob Dole weighed in with a letter.

 

Those pleas did not stop the trial, which began Tuesday but was promptly delayed, according to a report by Radio Free Europe. The agency reported that Turkyilmaz’s new lawyer said he needed more time to familiarize himself with the case, and that a delay was granted until tomorrow.

 

Ayse Gul Altinay, an assistant professor at Istanbul’s Sabanci University and an organizer of the campaign for Turkyilmaz, said in an e-mail message Wednesday that “we are hoping that the trial process will not last long and that Yektan will be freed soon. It is also very important that they return his research material, together with his personal things, when he is released.”

[mamigon]

Well, again, demonizing is not exactly what I set out to do, but if we are ever to demonize anyone for anything, it seems to me that fighting with the Nazis is a reasonable place to start. Otherwise we are setting the bar pretty damn low. I look forward to the day when someone does some serious, non-propagandistic research on this question and we can get a little closer to understanding if Dro and Nzhdeh were blinded by their hatred of the Soviets (not without reason, of course); willing to get into bed with anyone who dangled the promise, however remote, of a liberated Armenia; committed to Nazi ideology; or just delusional. All I know is we aren't there yet. Anyway, I am sorry to have hijacked this string with this discussion; although not all that sorry, since I think it is very interesting.

no don't get me wrong. i just tought mamigon was too harsh in criticising him for serving in the nazi army. Whether dros contribution was big or small doesn't matter, he foght for his principles.

 

i'm not really interested for a debate in this subject, but i also don't want people demonising historical figures.

 

as i said i think too his move to join nazis was a bad one, but i don't think they should be demonised this way

 

anyway i'm done with this subject, i said what i wanted to say.

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[Sasun]

One should try to be fair. Put saving the Armenian nation from destruction on one scale, and fighting with Nazis on another, and without any bias try to objectively determine what weighs more. Demonizing Nazis is the easiest thing to do, because everyone does that while there are no Nazis around to object or force you to say otherwise. Likewise, for a blind nationalist it is easy to justify his hero under any circumstances because of his emotional bias. On the other hand, it is usually hard to persuade that freedom fighters are not necessarily terrorists, that bombing a country is most likely wrong and unjustifiable, that even uncivilized people have the right of free choice, etc... All because of propaganada and prevailing trends of thinking which are often wrong. One should be careful not to flock with the crowd and instead hold his/her intellectual independence from prevailing mental trends such as mindless bashing and absolute demonization of Nazism, or flowing in a selfish nationalist current of downfall.

[gamavor]

Scholarly groups, which have waged a campaign to defend him, fear the smuggling charges are a subtext for the Armenian government to crack down on a researcher who is studying a politically sensitive period in the country’s tangled history with Turkey.

 

Bullshit!!! Stupid American Redneck propaganda for the masses!

 

As far as I know a 17 century book can be copied, scanned, microfilmed, etc.., no need to smuggle it out of the country, just like many other treasures that were stolen by the barbaric Turks and their American lackeys.

[MosJan]

community service as a form of punishment is it legal in Armenia ???

 

ether have him pay a penalty & reposes the books – have him do a community service - not necessary a nasty job - but work his ass of in some orphanages or ............

 

has the government of Armenia ever found the person who sold or gave him this book’s ??? I like to see them also punished

[DominO123]

Bullshit!!! Stupid American Redneck propaganda for the masses!

 

As far as I know a 17 century book can be copied, scanned, microfilmed, etc.., no need to smuggle it out of the country, just like many other treasures that were stolen by the barbaric Turks and their American lackeys.

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So let microfilm the book, give him a copy and just release him.

[gamavor]

So let microfilm the book, give him a copy and just release him.

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I agree! After he serves his sentance.

[MosJan]

I agree! After he serves his sentance.

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Gamavor jan your way to harsh on him - be Nobil Bro

[gamavor]

I'm not harsh. The Law is harsh. Speaking of harshness of the Law, American law is even harsher. Example: In all democratic countries felony is a crime punishable with 5 or more years in prison. In America, felony is a crime punishable with 1 or more years in prison.

 

Let those 'free-the-turk' advocates keep coming so that I can shut up their mouths.

[phantom22]

I may be known in this forum as "the village idiot," or "le fou de roi" (court jester), but here is Raffi Hovannissian agreeing with my earlier premise that holding this Turkish scholar is absolute idiocy and is ruining all we have worked so hard for.

 

The NSS (KGB) had their hand in this fiasco. Someone is very afraid of even a slight thaw in Armenian / Turkish relations.

 

We Armenians in the diaspora should threaten Pres. Kocharian and the ROA authorities that unless they fine and release this scholar, the diaspora gravy train will cease.

 

Obviously the Armenian authorities don't give a damn about the consequences of their idiotic actions.

 

 

Opposition Leader Shocked By Turkyilmaz Prosecution

 

By Emil Danielyan and Anna Saghabalian

 

Raffi Hovannisian, a prominent Armenian opposition politician, on Friday

strongly condemned the arrest and prosecution of Turkish historian

Yektan Turkyilmaz, saying that it is dealing a `powerful blow' to the

long-running efforts at international recognition of the Armenian

genocide.

 

He charged that by seeking to imprison Turkyilmaz on smuggling charges

the Armenian authorities have exposed their `false patriotism' and

serious problems with the rule of law in the country.

 

`It is hard to imagine a more powerful blow to international affirmation

of the Armenian genocide than this trial,' Hovannisian told RFE/RL as he

attended the second court hearing on the case in an apparent show of

solidarity with the jailed scholar.

 

`In my view, real patriotism means the laws of the Republic of Armenia

that deal with smuggling, corruption, espionage and high treason should

be enforced equally against all citizens, including the current

president, members of his family as well as all the ministers and their

relatives,' he said.

 

Turkyilmaz, who researched Ottoman history at the National Archive in

Yerevan, was charged with deliberately attempting to smuggle rare

Armenian books to Turkey last June. However, even individuals convicted

of more serious smuggling have rarely ended up in jail in Armenia.

Hence, growing questions about reasons for the unusually harsh

punishment sought by the Armenian law-enforcement authorities.

 

Hovannisian, who served as Armenia's first foreign minister in 1991-92

and now leads an opposition party called Zharangutyun (Heritage),

believes that the scholar was simply not aware of Armenian customs

regulations. `I think Yektan violated the Armenian laws apparently

without realizing that,' he said. `Let him and his colleagues know and

respect those laws from now on. They must also be free to access our

state archive. The matter should not have reached the court in the first

place.'

 

Similar arguments have been made by more than 200 Turkish, U.S. and

Armenian scholars that have signed an open letter to President Robert

Kocharian calling for their colleague's immediate release. Kocharian has

still not reacted to the letter.

 

Among its signatories is Richard Hovannisian, the Zharangutyun leader's

father and a prominent U.S. historian of Armenian descent. He has even

offered to post bail to secure Turkyilmaz's release pending trial. The

U.S.-born ex-minister said the authorities not only rejected the offer

but also reneged on their pledge to allow his father to visit Turkyilmaz

in a maximum security jail in Yerevan.

 

Incidentally, the letter to Kocharian was initiated by prominent Turkish

intellectuals who openly challenge Ankara's continuing denial of the

Armenian genocide. Turkyilmaz, who is an ethnic Kurd, has also

questioned the official Turkish line on the mass killings of Armenians

in 1915-1918. Fluent in Armenian, he became last May the first Turkish

historian to be granted access to the Armenian archive.

 

`The vast majority of Turks who signed the open letter to President

Kocharian have pro-Armenian views,' said Rober Hadeller, editor of

Istanbul's Armenian-language `Marmara' daily. `They want the guy to be

set free as soon as possible.'

 

Speaking to RFE/RL by phone, Hadeller said he and other prominent

Istanbul Armenians agree with their demands. `The crime which he is

accused of having committed doesn't seem that serious to us,' he said.

`After all, he claims to have bought those books in a market. One is

left to wonder if there are some other motives behind this case that are

unknown to us.'

 

The Turkish government has not yet officially reacted to its citizen's

arrest. But according to the `Marmara' editor, the issue is being

increasingly covered by the Turkish press. `Everyone is wondering why

the Armenian authorities have resorted to such a strict measure against

the first Turkish historian who worked with the Armenian archives,' he

said. `The fact that his notes and research documents were also

confiscated is seen as the most outrageous.'

 

Hovannisian, meanwhile, suggested that Ankara could exploit the case to

substantiate its claims that Yerevan has not opened its genocide-related

archives and is hampering independent scholarly research of Armenian

history. `In essence, this is a serious propaganda victory for the party

denying the genocide and a serious defeat for the people who suffered

the genocide,' he said. `As a citizen of this country, I feel ashamed

while following the court proceedings.'

 

(RFE/RL photo)

Edited August 13, 2005 by phantom22

[phantom22]

More about the involvement of the NSS.

 

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.

[phantom22]

The Najarian fiasco, public lands in the ROA being commandeered by close associates of the current administration, the beating death of Poghosyan by security forces, etc. etc. Now this Turkyilmaz fiasco which is jeopardizing the long and hard efforts toward Genocide recognition and some thawing of relations with Turkey.

 

Rose and Orange we have seen come to pass. Forces for an apricot revolution are rising. If the ROA authorities lose the diaspora 's support, holding on to power will become more difficult. The situation is coming to a "critical mass."

[MosJan]

"Forces for an apricot revolution are rising"

 

ohhh boyyyyyyy

[phantom22]

Mosjan,

 

Perhaps this can be achieved by close monitoring of the next election by international monitors. Then we can have a change of regime peacefully.

 

 

 

Armenia seems to be taking lessons from Israel.

 

The Israelis detained me at Ben Gurion Airport. I do not know to this day what I did wrong. Was it the tour excursion I took into the Palestinian territories? Was it because I refused to eat anything prepared in the Palestinian areas? Was it because I had spent all my tourist dollars in Israeli restaurants? Was it because I went to Yad Vashem to see the names of my relatives who had saved Jews ? Was it because I had purchased books there to learn about the culture of the people my relatives had married into? Was it because I was trying to solve the riddle of my great-grandfather's Jewish heritage?

 

Perhaps it was because a trip to Armenia was stamped in my passport.

 

Why is Armenia holding Turkyilmaz, who is a friend of the Armenian cause? Is it because he is a Turkish Kurd? Does the NSS have anything more on this Turkish scholar? If nothing else than removing books without permission, fine him a punishment commensurate with his transgression and put an end to this kangaroo-court.

 

Then get on the international media and let the world know that Armenia will not emulate Turkey where an Armenian editor and a Kurdish attorney have been put on trial for telling the truth.

Edited August 13, 2005 by phantom22

[hytga]

Why is Armenia holding Turkyilmaz, who is a friend of the Armenian cause?

it's been mentioned that he questions the turkish line not that he agrees with the armenian one. In any case, his view doesn't justify an arrest. But the reason i think authorities are after him is maybe they spotted fakeness? remember they first wanted to arrest him for espionage. Edited August 13, 2005 by hytga

[hytga]

Then we can have a change of regime peacefully.

i do not understand people who want a change of regime. I would agree with you but there really is no difference of who comes to power. everyone is going to appoint their relatives to high post etc. etc. None of them is a better alternative to kocharian. Even worse when they come to power they're going to be money hungry, and you know what that will lead to. I just dont know why people want to monkey georgians or ukrainians just for the sake of it. What's it going to change? we'll become a democratic country overnight?

[hytga]

http://www.armenialiberty.org/images/photo/Yektan1.jpg

why's he happy?