TURKEY BANS TURKISH GENOCIDE SCHOLAR

Taraf
Monday, January 7, 2008

BERLIN (Taraf)–Historian Mehmet Sait Uluishik, a German citizen
of Turkish origin has been banned from entering Turkey without any
explanation, the daily Taraf reported Sunday. Uluishik has been
researching the role of Circassian’s in the Armenian Genocide in the
Prime Ministry’s Ottoman Archives.

He said while he was working in the archives officials employed there
kept him under close observation.

Uluishik has been living in Germany since 1984. His Turkish citizenship
was revoked in 1991 for not performing his military service. Uluishik
has been a German citizen since 1997.

Since 2005 he has been working on Circassian history and has visited
Turkey almost 20 times during the last two years for his research. The
last time he arrived in Turkey was in November of 2007. When he
arrived at the airport in Istanbul he was handed a paper from the
Interior Ministry that declared he is barred from entering Turkey. He
was immediately deported to Berlin. When Uluishik asked the police
officer that handed him the paper for the reason behind it, he learned
that the ban was not issued by the police department but came directly
from the Interior Ministry.

Uluishik told the daily Taraf that he requested to talk to a
parliamentarian to learn the reason behind his ban. "The deputy told
me that the ban had nothing to do with the revocation of my citizenship
for completing my military duty," he added.