As mentioned on this blog here, here and here, one of the most alarming trends this year has been the use of the former KGB to defend the interests of state officials, as well as the system itself. Rather than protect the security of the nation, there are concerns that the National Security Service (NSS) is instead protecting the personal interests of those governing the country.

Writing for the Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor, Emil Danielyan has more.

Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS), the unreformed successor to the local branch of the Soviet KGB, has come under rare media attention after launching dubious criminal proceedings against prominent government critics. The resulting arrests of two businessmen who have alleged high-level corruption within the Armenian customs agency and a human rights lawyer who has helped ordinary citizens to sue their government are raising fresh questions about its real mission. They lend credence to the theory that the Armenian ex-KGB is little more than a repressive instrument in the hands of the ruling regime.

The still-feared agency has changed names several times since Armenia’s independence, but its activities are hardly more transparent than they were in Soviet times. The NSS is primarily supposed to combat grave crimes such as terrorism and espionage that threaten the country’s national security. However, it has clearly retained the Soviet-era function of secret police, monitoring and, if necessary, suppressing any activity that threatens the regime’s grip on power.

[…]

Official statistics about criminal investigations conducted by the NSS are extremely scarce. But individuals familiar with the agency say most of them deal with so-called “economic crimes” allegedly committed by government officials or businessmen. Individuals charged with such crimes in Armenia, whether justly or unjustly, often avoid going to jail by paying large bribes to law-enforcement officials.

[..]

Equally controversial was the October 11 arrest of human rights lawyer Vahe Grigorian. His law firm, called “Right,” has represented residents of old neighborhoods in central Yerevan who are being forcibly evicted from their homes as part of a massive government-sanctioned redevelopment project. They say that financial compensation offered to them by the state is extremely low. Some have taken the Yerevan municipality to court. However, the government-controlled Armenian courts have thrown out virtually all of those lawsuits. Grigorian, who denies fraud charges leveled against him, helped several such families take their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Fellow Right lawyers believe this is the reason why he ended up in the NSS’s maximum-security basement jail in downtown Yerevan.

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Via Blogrel, Inside Higher Ed has an interview with Yektan Turkyilmaz, the Turkish scholar of Kurdish descent who was arrested in June by Armenian National Security Service agents, the successor to the Soviet era KGB, but released two months later.

Four months ago, Yektan Turkyilmaz was a doctoral student in cultural anthropology at Duke University, well-regarded but little known outside his field. Then, on June 17, authorities at the airport in Yerevan, Armenia ordered him off a plane and placed him under arrest, confiscating nearly 100 books and CDs of research he had done as the first Turkish scholar ever granted access to the National Archives of Armenia.

The full interview can be read online here.

Yektan Turkyilmaz Trial, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia

Hrant Dinc, Yektan Turkyilmaz Trial, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia

RFE/RL reports that Yektan Turkyilmaz, the Turkish scholar arrested while apparently attempting to take books out of Armenia, has made his first public comments about the two month ordeal since being released. The comments are made on the website of the University in the United States where he studies.

In an interview published on the website of his Duke University in the United States on Thursday, Yektan Turkyilmaz insisted that his attempt to take rare books out of Armenia without a mandatory government permission was not the main reason for his arrest last June. He said the National Security Service (NSS), the Armenian successor to the Soviet KGB, used the issue as a “pretext” to keep him in detention without having to prove that he is a Turkish spy.

[…]

During the two-month pre-trial inquiry NSS officers questioned many of Turkyilmaz’s Armenian friends and acquaintances. Some of them say they were not asked any questions about some 90 old books, including two 17th century publications, which the Duke scholar legally bought in Yerevan. Under an Armenian law that acme into effect in January, they can not be taken abroad without a written permission of the Culture Ministry.

[…]

An ethnic Kurd fluent in Armenian, Turkyilmaz became last May the first Turkish national who sought and was allowed to carry out research in Armenia’s national archives regarding the 1915-1918 extermination of some 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. He is among the few Turkish scholars who openly challenge Ankara’s claims that the mass killings did not amount to genocide.

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian welcomed Turkyilmaz’s release on August 30, admitting that his imprisonment would have damaged Yerevan’s international standing and efforts at international recognition of the Armenian genocide. “I wish the trial had not taken place,” he said.

Oskanian spoke to journalists the day before the formal entry into force of the court verdict in the case. Turkyilmaz flew back to the United States on September 2, avoiding any stopovers in Turkey. He apparently feared being detained and questioned by Turkish security officials.

“What’s funny is that now you have some Armenians officials who don’t want me doing research in Armenia, and some Turks who don’t want me to talk about the genocide,” Turkyilmaz said. “I just hope the incident will lead to closer cooperation between Turkish and Armenian scholars in discussing some of these painful historical questions.”

After the trial, I met Yektan Turkyilmaz on many occasions here in Yerevan. He was always with his Armenian friends and it was horrific to hear what goes on in the KGB building although thankfully, they at least spared him that ordeal. Now I can imagine what the old Soviet Union must have been like. On a brighter note, however, when ringing Yektan to arrange meeting up I would ask him “Are you free tonight?” After two months in KGB detention, Yektan would always respond by saying, “Now, I’m always free…”

Anyway, I digress. The full report can be read online here while the original piece from Duke University is here.

RFE/RL carries a report from AFP saying that prominent Turkish author Orhan Pamuk faces prosecution in Turkey after making “controversial remarks” about the Armenian Genocide. Pamuk faces three years imprisonment if convicted.

Pamuk, the widely translated author of such internationally renowned works as “The White Castle”, and “Snow”, triggered a public outcry when he said in an interview with a Swiss newspaper in February that “one million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it.”

Interestingly, the award winning author was one of 257 academics and writers that signed a letter in support of Yektan Turkyilmaz, another Turkish scholar who this time faced between four to eight years in prison in Armenia apparently for attempting to “smuggle” books over fifty years old out of the country.

Hopefully the precedent of the international academic community rallying to the support of Turkyilmaz who many believe was arrested by the former KGB in Armenia because of his work on the Genocide can now be expanded to included Pamuk.

RFE/RL reports that the Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian has expressed his relief that the Turkish scholar Yektan Turkyilmaz was not imprisoned after being arrested by the former KGB for apparently attempting to smuggle books out of the country.

Oskanian said he believes that Yektan Turkyilmaz, a doctoral student at the U.S. Duke University, should not have been put on trial for trying to take old books out of Armenia without a government permission required by the law.

Interestingly, Oskanian denied that the Armenian Foreign Ministry did not intervene and influence the verdict passed down that effectively say Turkyilmaz freed. However, I’ve heard differently from reliable sources and no doubt, there were some very high level phone calls to the judge the morning the two year suspended sentence was passed down.

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Yektan Turkyilmaz Trial, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian

RFE/RL’s Armenia Service has more on the case that just doesn’t seem to go away. As many suspect, although prosecutors initially wanted a sentence of between four to eight years for Yektan Turkyilmaz, a Turkish scholar accused of attempting to take books over fifty years of age out of Armenia, it would appear that President Robert Kocharian intervened.

Bob Dole, a former U.S. senator known for his pro-Armenian views, has welcomed the release of a Turkish scholar who was controversially detained in Armenia two months ago, it emerged on Wednesday.

“I want to express my sincere gratitude to you and the people of Armenia in the wake of the recent release of Yektan Turkyilmaz, the Duke University graduate student detained since June 17,” Dole said in a letter to President Robert Kocharian, a copy of which was obtained by RFE/RL.

Turkyilmaz, 33, was set free in the court on August 16 after being given a two-year suspended prison sentence for attempting to illegally take about 90 Armenian books published more than 50 years ago out of the country. Under Armenian law, they can not be taken abroad without government permission. Turkyilmaz insisted throughout his trial that he was unaware of the requirement.

[…]

“Yektan’s release symbolizes a crucial step in Armenia’s commitment to democracy,” Dole said. “Thank you for your encouraging leadership in this important matter.”

[…]

In a related development, sources told RFE/RL that the Armenian Foreign Ministry also expressed concern earlier this month about Turkyilmaz’s controversial prosecution in a written message to the National Security Service (NSS) that handled the case. They said the ministry warned that the Turkish government could exploit the case to claim that Armenia’s state archives are effectively closed to Turkish historians who want to research the 1915-1918 genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

Coincidentally, myself and a few other local Armenians as well as those from the Diaspora met up with Turkyilmaz this evening. Lots to say on that but the only thing of importance is that this case is finally over. The full article can be read online here.

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.

Blogrel cites a Regnum news item in Russian reporting that Yektan Turkyilmaz has been sentenced to a two year suspended sentence. That doesn’t matter, however, as the young academic was freed immediately. After reading the news on Blogrel and as I didn’t attend today’s court session, Emil Danielyan at RFE/RL has confirmed the news. However, Turkyilmaz cannot leave Armenia for the next two weeks but is reported to be delighted by that restriction. He says he wants to spend more time in the Armenian archives.

There’ll be a comprehensive report on the ArmeniaLiberty site later on in the day. In the meantime, just a word of advice, Yektan. Try and stay away from the Vernisage and any old book stores…

Yektan Turkyilmaz Trial, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian

RFE/RL covers the third day of the Turkyilmaz trial and says that despite an international outcry, prosecutors in Yerevan appear unwilling to drop the charges against the young Turkish scholar of Kurdish descent. Turkyilmaz stands accused of attempting to take books over 50 years old out of the country. Present was Orin Starn, a professor from Duke University in the United States where Turkyilmaz is completing his PhD.

“I’m here to let it be known that Duke University fully supports Yektan,” he said. “I am the supervisor of his dissertation and I can not believe that he would knowingly break the law in any way. So I hope for his speedy release.”

The president of Duke University, Richard Brodhead, wrote to President Robert Kocharian on August 1, calling for the scholar’s release. “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,” he said. Kocharian has not yet responded to the letter, according to Starn.

Also present was Hrant Dink, a journalist and editor of Armenian descent currently facing prosecution in Turkey. Dink is one of hundreds of Armenian, Turkish and foreign academics, journalists and figures in the public eye who have rallied to the 33-year old’s defense.

“It must be admitted that Yektan certainly did something wrong with regard to the laws of the Republic of Armenia,” he told RFE/RL. “But Yektan is not a criminal. He is a serious intellectual. He committed a serious offence unintentionally and you just can’t use books for criminal prosecution. Such things are not accepted in the world.”

Dink, who himself is facing a possible jail sentence in Turkey for publicly emphasizing his Armenian heritage, also pointed out that Turkyilmaz is among few Turkish academics who openly question Ankara’s decades-long denial of the Armenian genocide. “We [Istanbul’s Armenian community] have a handful of Turkish intellectuals standing by our side and Yektan is one of them,” he said.

As the trial continues, RFE/RL’s account of the day’s proceedings can be found online here. All of the posts relating to this case on this site can be found here. A site in support of the academic is also online at http://www.yektan.org. Other sites such as Blogrel have also been following the case.

Hrant Dink speaking at the trial of Yektan Turkyilmaz, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian

Recently, a comment was made on this site that the legal action against the Turkish scholar Yektan Turkyilmaz might have been in response to action against a journalist of Armenian descent, Hrant Dink, in Turkey. Well, two wrongs don’t make a right but more significantly, while Turkyilmaz is still kept under tight security in Armenia, Hrant Dink is free to travel.

In fact, he was at Turkyilmaz’s trial today along with another journalist of Armenian descent from Turkey. Both had come along to lend their support to Turkyilmaz and in particular, Dink had some harsh words to say about proceedings. Last week, Raffi Hovannisian also attended the trial and was not impressed. I’ll leave it to Emil and Rouzanna at RFE/RL to write more on that later in the day.

Meanwhile, I’ll try and sort out more pics of today’s trial in Yerevan to post. Incidentally, while it’s worth pointing out that the two main pro-government TV stations, Public TV and Armenia TV, appear to be ignoring the trial and weren’t present on Friday or today, the Chicago Tribune has an article on the controversy over Turkyilmaz’s detention.

In nearly two weeks of interrogation, the academic said through friends, he was never questioned about his books but instead about his research and a compact disc of archival information that was to be the basis for his writing. The disc has been confiscated.

“This should not be a political issue; this should be for the historians to look into and decide,” said an official at the Turkish Foreign Ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity. “From what we had heard, this young scholar seemed to support the Armenian side of the so-called genocide debate. It is such a strange turn of events, to arrest him.”

For the last two years, Turkyilmaz has conducted research in Turkish and Armenian libraries and the Turkish national archives. This year, he was the first Turkish citizen allowed access to the Armenian national archives, according to an Armenian government press release.

The Chicago Tribune article can be read online here.

Emil Danielyan at RFE/RL has indeed written two articles on the controversial trial of a Turkish scholar arrested in Yerevan. According to Danielyan, Turkyilmaz has pleaded not guilty and said he had no intention to violate the laws of the Republic of Armenia. Instead, his attempts to take books valued at $4,600 out of the country was simply “a mistake.” The books were openly bought in Yerevan or given to the 33-year-old academic.

According to the report, the National Security Service (NSS), the successor to the KGB, were instrumental in Turkyilmaz’s arrest. Interestingly, Turkyilmaz had already cleared customs and passport control at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport and was either detained as he was about to board his flight or pulled off the plane moments before it was due to depart (news reports vary).

This leads some commentators to wonder if the KGB hadn’t targetted Turkyilmaz on purpose. Usually, those taking cultural artifacts out of the country are merely fined and the items in question confiscated.

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.

It is interesting to note the presence of Raffi Hovannisian, the US-born first Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia now in opposition to the Armenian President, Robert Kocharian. In Danielyan’s second article penned in collaboration with Anna Saghabalyan, Hovannisian argues that the Turkyilmaz case has struck a “powerful blow” against Armenian attempts to have the 1915 Genocide recognized.

“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.”

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