RFE/RL carries news that Yektan Turkyilmaz has walked free from a Yerevan court after being given a two-year suspended sentence. The young scholar of Kurdish descent was the first Turkish academic to access the Armenian archives. However, he was arrested in June by National Security Service (former KGB) agents while attempting to leave the country with books aged over fifty years old. In recent weeks, a campaign to secure the 33-year-old’s release gained momentum.

The court in the city’s Malatia-Sebastia district convicted Turkyilmaz of two counts of smuggling but chose not to imprison him at the last-minute request of state prosecutors that cited his partial acknowledgement of his guilt and cooperation with investigators. The doctoral student of the U.S. Duke University will have to stay in Armenia until the verdict’s formal entry into force on August 31. He will then be free to leave the country and visit it again.

“I’m now free, right?” an incredulous Turkyilmaz asked journalists that surrounded him immediately after the announcement of the ruling. “I am happy to be free,” he said after hearing a positive answer. “I now want to concentrate on my doctoral dissertation. I was, I am and I will remain a friend of the Armenians.”

According to anonymous sources in the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Turkyilmaz is one of the few historians from Turkey that recognizes the 1915 massacres of Armenians as Genocide. Hrant Dink, a journalist of Armenian descent from Turkey also stated that Turkyilmaz was one of the few Turkish intellectuals that stood by the Istanbul Armenian community. Because of this, many found it incredible that Turkyilmaz had been treated so harshly. Prosecuters initially wanted a sentence of between four to eight years.

Turkyilmaz’s release was welcomed by Orin Starn, a representative of Duke University who attended the trial. “Duke University is very pleased that Yektan has been given his freedom,” Starn told RFE/RL. “The books that Yektan collected were a reflection of his interest in Armenia. I know that Yektan will do wonderful work that will help us to understand the history of this region and the facts of the Armenian genocide.”

[…]

Individuals accused of smuggling have rarely ended up in prison in Armenia. This fact raised questions about reasons for the severity of the charges brought against Turkyilmaz. The latter’s interrogations by officials from the National Security Service (NSS), which conducted the pre-trial investigation into the case, reportedly focused on his academic work and political beliefs.

The electronic copies of his research material collected at Armenia’s National Archive were also confiscated and closely examined by NSS investigators. The Malatia-Sebastia court ordered them to return the CDs to the scholar.

Turkyilmaz cannot leave Armenia for the next two weeks but says that he is happy for the opportunity to undertake more research in the Armenian archives. Incidentally, during his interview with RFE/RL reporters, Turkyilmaz apparently said that while in custody he was allowed a radio and listened to the station’s broadcasts. I’m told he personally thanked the radio station for their coverage of his case.

Anyway, the full article can be read online here.