Duke leader pleads for scholar
By SARAH OVASKA, Staff Writer

Researcher is being held because he tried to take
books out of Armenia

The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
August 5, 2005

Duke University President Richard Brodhead wrote a letter to the
president of Armenia this week, joining other scholars in calling
for the release of a Duke researcher jailed for attempting to take
books out of the country.

Yektan Turkyilmaz, 33, a doctoral student in Duke’s cultural
anthropology department, was jailed June 17 by Armenian authorities
while trying to fly to Turkey, his native country. He had about a
hundred secondhand books with him and has been held in custody since.

In his letter, Brodhead appealed to Armenian President Robert Kocharian
to release Turkyilmaz.

“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,” Brodhead
wrote in his Aug. 1 letter. “You also have the ability to release
Mr. Turkyilmaz.”

An open letter from more than 200 scholars from the United States,
Turkey and Armenia asking for Turkyilmaz’s release has also been sent
to Kocharian, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

A Turk of Kurdish heritage, Turkyilmaz was in Armenia conducting
research at the country’s national archives, the first Turkish citizen
granted permission to do so.

Tensions between Turkey and Armenia stem from the killings of Armenians
between 1915 and 1923, which Armenians consider a genocide of 1.5
million people.

Turkyilmaz is the first person charged in Armenia under a little-known
customs law that requires permission to take books older than 50
years out of the country, Brodhead’s letter states.

If convicted, he faces four to eight years in prison.

Staff writer Sarah Ovaska can be reached at 829-4622 or
sovaska@newsobserver.com.