TURKISH CITIZEN ONLY ACCEPTS CHARGE OF ATTEMPTED SMUGGLING

YEREVAN, AUGUST 12, NOYAN TAPAN. Ektan Turkyilmaz, a Turkish citizen,
accepted partly the charge brought against him. Responding a question
asked in the court, he stated at the August 12 court sitting that he
accepts a charge of attempted smuggling but not a charge of smuggling.

“My guilt might have come from ignorance of the Armenian laws, I never
intended to break the Armenian laws and do any harm to the Armenian
people,” the accused said. The witness Hayk Meliksetian, a customs
employee at Zvartnots Airport, stated that there is a list of items
subject to declaration at the entrance of the customs zone, and any
citizen carrying an item indicated in the list must go through the
so-called red zone. The Turkish citizen, however, went through the
green zone. In the witness’s words, E. Turkyilmaz was just “ignorant
of the law.” Several booksellers, from whom the Turkish citizen had
purchased books, testified in the court. In particular, the witness
Babken Sakanian said that E. Turkyilmaz was interested in books of
the 1600s-1700s and made purchases (in drams) of a total of 3,200
dollars. Another bookseller Arsen Harutyunian confirmed his
preliminary evidence, according to which the Turkish citizen was
showing interest in books on the Armenian Genocide, Armenology as well
as books printed early. According to the witness, E. Turkyilmaz
admitted the fact of the Armenian Genocide in a private talk they
had. The accused made a gesture in the courtroom showing that he
recognizes the Armenian Genocide. The witnesses will continue
testifying at the next court sitting on August 15. To recap, on June
17, 2005, the employees of the RA national security bodies found, as a
result of operative measures at Zvartnots Airport, 110 books printed
in the 17-20 centuries, manuscripts, maps, magazines, brochures,
including 89 ones of historical and cultural value, in the luggage of
Ektan Turkyilmaz, a Tirkish citizen of Kurdish descent, 33, a
post-graduate student at the “Duke” University, who was going to take
a Yerevan-Stambul flight. He made an attempt to smuggle the
abovementioned items out of Armenia, trying to hide them from customs
control.