Epress.am News from Armenia
In the city of Kars, Turkey, at 1 pm on Nov. 19, the staff of GALA TV were detained by local national security service officers, reports Lragir.am.
While filming one of the districts populated by Armenians in the past, GALA staff were approached by a few plainclothes national security service officers who prohibited them from filming. Then, they directed the five-member GALA team to the police division with the aim of inspecting their ID and relevant documentation.
The officers informed the GALA team that without the necessary permission, they had no right to film in Kars and in Turkey, in general. The GALA staff countered that it wasn’t possible to receive permission because during the Bayram (Eid ul-Fitr) holidays it was actually impossible to locate and contact any state officials.
The GALA team — group leader K. Harutyunyan, editor E. Mkhitaryan, camera operator T. Gasabyan, translator H. Filyan, driver R. Martirosyan — resigned from handing over their passports to officers and said their rights were being violated. The national security service staff made a few calls to their superiors, then informed the group that a fine must be paid. First they noted that the fine for a single individual is 250 Turkish lira, then as a goodwill gesture, said the entire group could pay just the single fine.
They responded to the GALA team’s complaints with smiles, offers of tea and words of “it’s the requirement of our law; there’s no [malicious] intent.” However, after a few new rounds of phone calls, they informed the group from Armenia that there won’t be any fine and they have nothing to pay.
Though the passports were checked for only 5 minutes, the GALA team was kept at the station for one-and-a-half hours. After the group complained there were no grounds for keeping them, the officers, checking the GALA employees’ passport details and the legality of their entering the country, let them go, asking them to cease future filming.