There is a letter circulating that will eventually be presented to Robert Kocharyan asking that the Kurdish-Turkish scholar Yektan Turkyilmaz [see our coverage] be released and his digital research material returned to him. It is organized by a number of Turkish scholars that have worked on Genocide research like Taner Akcam and Fatma Muge Gocek. Orhan Pamuk is involved as well.

The Committee for Solidarity with Yektan Turkyilmaz is headed by Ayse Altinay who can be e-mailed at altinay@sabanciuniv.edu, if anyone is interested in signing this petition.

Please see the letter after the jump

[from here]

OPEN LETTER

Robert Kocharian His Excellency President of the Republic of Armenia

Your Excellency,

We write to you today to express our grave concern about Yektan Turkyilmaz and his pending trial in Armenia. Mr. Turkyilmaz is a Ph.D. student at Duke University in the United States. He is a Turkish citizen who was arrested on June 17, 2005 as he was leaving Armenia. He has been held under high security conditions at the National Security Service building in Yerevan ever since his arrest. Last week, the request to release him on bail, accompanied by personal guarantees of a member of the Armenian Parliament and a prominent Armenian-American historian, was turned down. It now appears that Mr. Turkyilmaz will stand trial on customs violation charges under Article 215 Paragraph 2 of the Armenian Criminal Code, which includes a prison sentence of 4 to 8 years.

Mr. President, we the undersigned care deeply about improvements in Armenian-Turkish relations and consider the unimpeded work of independent scholars to be a sine qua non of vital steps in the right direction. The way that Mr. Turkyilmaz has been treated is setting a negative precedent.

Yektan Turkyilmaz is fluent in six languages, including Armenian, and has been the first Turkish scholar to work in the Armenian National Archives. His dissertation research at a leading American university is being supported by several prestigious awards. We understand that he has been questioned about his research and theoretical orientations, and the digital copies of his archival research have been confiscated. There can be no justification for this treatment.

Furthermore, we understand that he is now being charged with attempting to take old books out of Armenia without permission. We understand that none of the books he had with him were absolutely prohibited from being taken out of the country, but only required permissions. We are convinced that Mr. Turkyilmaz did not know about this requirement at the time and would have undoubtedly complied with this requirement as he has demonstrated to be a serious scholar and a friend of Armenian culture on many occasions. We recognize that laws have to be applied consistently under a rule of law. However, as the investigator in charge of this case states, the current law places no obligation on the sellers of old books to inform the purchasers that special permissions will be needed to take the books out of the country, and makes no distinction between violations involving nuclear weapons and books. While it may be appropriate to impose a fine for the unknowing violation of customs regulations, prison terms of 4 to 8 years are grossly disproportionate and would send a deterrent signal to other independent scholars.

The political implications of this arrest cause grave concern. Yektan Turkyilmaz is one of a very few Turkish scholars who have critically tackled the events of 1915 and other instances of political violence in the first part of this century. Being the only researcher who can understand Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Kurdish, and Armenian at the same time (besides English and French), his research promises to add new dimensions to the study of a very troubled historical period in Anatolia and the South Caucasus. The fact that he was arrested soon after he gained access as the first Turkish scholar to the Armenian National Archives adds to these concerns. The fragile space of dialogue that has recently been opened up between Turkish and Armenian scholars is put to the risk of being greatly damaged by Turkyilmaz’s prolonged detention. This arrest would also raise serious doubts as to whether Armenia encourages independent scholarly research on its history.

Mr. President, we respectfully urge you to intervene to ensure that this unfortunate state of affairs comes to a swift and amicable end. We request the immediate release of Yektan Turkyilmaz and a return of his digital research material so that he can continue his scholarly activities.

Committee for Solidarity with Yektan Turkyilmaz

Taner Akcam, Visiting Associate Professor of History, University of Minnesota Ayse Gul Altinay, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Sabanci University Murat Belge, writer, columnist, and Professor of Comparative Literature, Bilgi University Halil Berktay, Professor of History, Sabanci University Oral Calislar, writer and columnist, Cumhuriyet Newspaper Özlem Dalkiran, human rights activist, Peace Initiative Hrant Dink, writer and columnist, Agos Newspaper Fatma Muge Gocek, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan

Etyen Mahcupyan, writer, columnist, and Director of the Democratization Program, Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) Orhan Pamuk, writer Taha Parla, Professor of Political Science, Bogazici University Elif Shafak, writer and Assistant Professor of Near East Studies, University of Arizona Ragip Zarakolu, writer and publisher, Belge Publishing House

_____________________________

Dear friends,

I would like to give you an update on Yektan Turkyilmaz’s situation and ask if you would like to sign the letter we have drafted to send to President Kocharian. “We” refers to the ‘Committee for Solidarity with Yektan Turkyilmaz’ which has recently been set up and is composed of the following names (in alphabetical order of last names):

Taner Akcam, Ayse Gul Altinay, Murat Belge, Halil Berktay, Oral Calislar, Vzlem Dalkiran, Hrant Dink, Fatma Muge Gocek, Etyen Mahcupyan, Orhan Pamuk,Taha Parla, Elif Shafak, and Ragip Zarakolu.

We are very much hoping that this letter will convey the thoughts and feelings of others among you and that we can send it to the President with a much longer list of signatories. We will list the committee signatures and other signatures separately in order not to confuse the two. In other words, if you decide to sign the letter, it will not be as if you are a part of this committee; you will only have signed this letter.

If you would like to sign the letter, please do send me your name and affiliation . . . .

Together with the letter, I am sending you two short documents about Yektan and his legal status. Very briefly:

- Yektan has been held in the National Security Service (still referred to as the KGB) headquarters in Yerevan since June 17.

- The indictment has been turned in to the court and accuses Yektan of having violated Article 215 of the Armenian Criminal Code which says: “Contraband of narcotic drugs, neurological, strong, poisonous, poisoning, radioactive or explosive materials, weapons, explosive devices, ammunition, fire-arms, except smoothbore long barrel hunting guns, nuclear, chemical, biological or other mass destruction weapons, or dual-use materials, devices, or technologies which can also be used for the creation or use of mass destruction weapons or missile delivery systems thereof, strategic raw materials or cultural values for the transportation of which special rules are established, is punished with imprisonment for the term of 4 to 8 years, with or without property confiscation.”(http://www.legislationline.org/view.php? document=62156&ref=true)

- We are waiting for a trial date to be determined. In the meantime, Yektan will remain at the KGB headquarters. His lawyers request for bail (accompanied by letters of guarantee by Richard Hovanissian and a member of the Armenian parliament) has been refused.

I am also coming with news and greetings from Yektan himself. I was in Armenialast week. It was a very productive trip where I met with a number of wonderful people who were very supportive and hospitable. Yet, it alsomade me realize the gravity of the situation. I was able to see Yektan for about 45 minutes at the KGB building in Yerevan, in an interrogation room, in the presence of an agent.

Yektan is in fine health–both physical and mental. His only access to the outside world has been a radio station, some Armenian newspapers, and his meetings with the lawyer. He cannot write or receive letters, but he has read the support letters that you have all sent and is VERY APPRECIATIVE of each one. He wanted me to write a special message to this group and thank you for all your support and solidarity. Yektan suggests that for the first week to ten days, the investigation was mostly about his research, his political views, and his connections. He says that they looked at every single page in his archival files. The books became the main focus of the investigation after, according to him, the letters started pouring in. He could directly experience the impact of the letters and is deeply appreciative.

He also wanted me to let you know how much he appreciates and values the space of dialogue, critique, and interaction that is being opened up by your efforts. He would hate to see his case become a source of conflict and antagonism. He said he...

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