Red tape greets Yerevan journalists at Turkish airport

Red tape greets Yerevan journalists at Turkish airport

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

'I've never had any problems with Turkish authorities before. The officials were always helpful,' says Yerevan Press Club Chairman Boris Navasartyan.

Customs officers allegedly impeded a group of Armenian journalists entering Turkey on Monday.

The crisis was reportedly overcome with efforts by Delal Dink, daughter of Hrant Dink, the assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist and editor-in-chief of weekly Agos, and Can Yirik from the Global Political Trends Center, or GPoT.

Yerevan Press Club Chairman Boris Navasartyan, who played a prominent part in establishing close relations between journalists and nongovernmental organizations from Turkey and Armenia, and 11 other Armenian journalists arrived in Istanbul from Yerevan on Monday.

Some of the journalists were to attend Hrant Dink Foundation meetings while the rest were to meet with Azerbaijani peers at a conference on "The role of the media in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict" organized by GPoT.

"They were asked how much money they had, whether they had a hotel reservation, when their flight back would be. I tried to explain all of us [were] together and all expenses for us were covered by foundations, but even this explanation didn't satisfy the officers," Navasartyan told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. He said he was allowed to pass, but his colleagues were not, and when he objected he was threatened by the passport control officers.

"The officers threatened me and said that if I did not go to the checkpoint counter immediately I would be deported. The immigration service took our passports and left us waiting. One of the young ladies was separated from us and taken to another room," he said.

GPoT officials confirmed Navasartyan's account. Yirik said the crisis was resolved after two hours.

"I called airport security to check whether there was an unlawful deed involved on the part of our guests. They told me that two ladies were detained due to a lack of cash. I told them that they were my guests. It took us two hours to get them released,” he said.

The passport control office declined to answer the Daily News’ questions concerning the issue.

‘We are awaiting explanation’

"I’ve never had any problems with Turkish authorities before,” said Navasartyan. I’ve traveled here by plane, by bus and by car, the immigration service, the police and other officials were always polite and helpful. I have a feeling that the incident was this or that way connected to the current state of Turkish-Armenian relations. The failure of this stage of the rapprochement process is reflected in many things including the treatment toward Armenian citizens at the border."

Navasartyan said the Yerevan Press Club was doing its best to revive the frozen relations between the two nations. "We are waiting for an official explanation about the incident. If an explanation is not offered, then we will have to reassess whether to travel, organize and take part in