YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS: Armenian national security officers arrested a Turkish student who they said was trying to smuggle out of Armenia tens of books “of historical and cultural value” dating back to 17 and 20 centuries.
A statement by the national security service said Ektan Turkilmaz, 33, a Turkish citizen from Istanbul and a student of a US-based Duke University, in North Carolina, was arrested aboard a plane bound from Yerevan to Istanbul. It said the books were about Armenian religious rites, history and culture, Armenian traditional parties.
Turkyilmaz, who speaks Armenian, was the first and so far the only Turkish scholar given access to Armenia’s state archives. He was taught the language by an Armenian teacher in Istanbul, and arrived in Armenia to work on his doctoral thesis that focuses on the creation and activities of Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian parties during the final decades of the Ottoman Empire. The national security service said a criminal case was opened to investigate how the student was able to take hold of these books.
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