Duke student gets suspended term for breaking Armenian book law

The Associated Press

YEREVAN, Armenia — A Yerevan court on Tuesday handed a two-year suspended sentence to a Turkish historian from Duke University who tried to leave the country with centuries-old books, in violation of Armenian law.
Yektan Turkyilmaz, 33, was leaving from Yerevan June 17, when Armenian security agents pulled him from his plane. He was carrying 88 books, some of which dated back to the 17th century, authorities said.

Armenian law prohibits anyone from taking a book that is more than 50 years old out of the country without permission. Authorities did not return the books to Turkyilmaz.

Turkyilmaz is the only Turkish scholar to be allowed to study in Armenia, which has tense relations with Turkey, due to lingering bitterness over the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I and Turkey’s support of Armenia’s regional rival, Azerbaijan.

Turkyilmaz, who was freed after the ruling, told reporters that he planned to spend another two weeks working in Yerevan before returning to Istanbul then North Carolina, where he is a doctoral student at Duke.