Education Duke University | ||
Yektan Türkyilmaz is a Turkish scholar of Kurdish origin associated with Duke University. Türkyilmaz, then 33, is most often cited for his June, 2005, arrest and imprisonment upon his intended departure from a research trip to Armenia. The first individual of Turkish nationality who had been granted access to the National Archives of Armenia, Türkyilmaz was also one of the small number of intellectuals of Turkish origin who had argued that Armenians as a group had been targeted for atrocities by the then Turkish government during and following 1915. His arrest, initially without charges, generated surprise and protests from circles in Turkey and also the United States, including from Richard Hovannisian of the University of California at Los Angeles, and former US Senator Bob Dole. Türkyilmaz later said that security officials who had arrested him appeared to have thought him involved in espionage, but eventually he was charged with illegally removing books and other materials, more than fifty years old, that he had openly and legally purchased in Armenia, or which had been presented to him as gifts during his research. In August, 2005, Türkyilmaz was set free with a suspended sentence.