DUKE STUDENT RELEASED FROM ARMENIAN PRISON
NBC 17.com, NC
Oct 17 2005
POSTED: 5:49 am EDT October 17, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. — A Duke University scholar is back at work on his
doctoral dissertation after spending two months in an Armenian prison
this summer on what he believes was a trumped-up charge.
Yektan Turkyilmaz was detained when he tried to leave that country
with antique books, a violation of Armenian law.
But the Turkish citizen thinks it was his research that really got
him into trouble. The two countries have a historically hostile
relationship, and Turkyilmaz’s dissertation addresses it.
“I never thought that they would, like, you know, detain me. I thought
it was something silly,” he said.
Turkyilmaz, 33, has been to Armenia five times, the first in 2002. He
returned in April to work for two months. The avid book collector
also bought more than 100 used books and pamphlets in Yerevan, the
Armenian capital, something he has done in the past with no problem.
This time, however, it caused a big one.
As Turkyilmaz waited to pass through an airport security checkpoint
on June 17, a strange man spoke to him in broken English. Turkyilmaz
had been speaking Armenian.
“I realized that something was up,” he recalled.
His passport was stamped, but then he was surrounded by more than
half a dozen agents from the National Security Service who told
Turkyilmaz to empty his pockets and confiscated his luggage. They
disregarded his explanation that he was a scholar and meticulously
began logging the titles of the 88 books he had in his bags —
sometimes with Turkyilmaz’s help in translating those that were
written in old Armenian.
But the agents also showed little care for the books, some of which
dated to the 17th century. They piled them on the floor or dumped them
in plastic bags. And their questions quickly switched to Turkyilmaz
himself — his political views, his Kurdish ethnicity, who he knew
in Armenia and the subject of his research.
That, he believes, was the real issue. Turkyilmaz is studying how
modern Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish nationalism developed after the
mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I. He was the
first Turkish scholar allowed in the Armenian national archives to
conduct research.
“His trip was unprecedented for a Turkish citizen and also a huge
feather in his cap for his academic career,” said Charles Kurzman,
an associate professor of sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill and one of
Turkyilmaz’s advisers. “That’s high-risk, high-gain research.”
U.S. politicians and diplomats were joined by a host of academics
who campaigned for his release from Armenia, while Turkyilmaz spent
his days in a small prison cell in Yerevan.
He was questioned almost daily during the first month by agents who
examined his computer files and CDs. They also accused him of being
a spy — a charge that could bring a 15-year prison term.
But the only charge filed against him, three days after his arrest,
involved the books. Breaking the obscure law — unfamiliar even to
the booksellers — could have gotten Turkyilmaz as much as eight
years in prison.
“The whole idea that you could be sentenced to years in prison for
taking used books out of the country was preposterous,” said Orin
Starn, a professor of cultural anthropology at Duke and primary
adviser to Turkyilmaz.
On Aug. 16, a judge convicted Turkyilmaz but gave him a two-year
suspended sentence.
Turkyilmaz worries now that the conviction could hamper his travel
in southwestern Asia — and, consequently, his research — or create
problems with U.S. authorities when his visa expires in a few months.
But he said he’s not bitter, and the experience has only cemented
his desire to pursue an academic career in the United States.
“I’m so glad to be back,” he said. “I feel so safe here, so secure. I
just want to go back to my work. That’s the only thing I want to do
with my life.”