Epress.am News from Armenia
Turkey’s border security guards at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport threatened to deport journalists from Armenia who had arrived for a Sept. 13–15 seminar on the role of media in improving cooperation and security in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and in the region.
As told to Epress.am by our Istanbul correspondent, early in the morning, passengers on the Istanbul flight, including those who were going to participate in the media seminar, had their passports taken away.
When one of the seminar organizers, Yervan Press Club Director Boris Navasardian, attempted to intervene, he was threatened with deportation. Turkish border guards provided no explanation for the reaction.
A few passengers who always take that flight, speaking with the Epress.am correspondent, said that this was the first time that such an incident took place in Istanbul’s airport.
The situation was resolved only after the seminar organizers’ Turkish representatives intervened.
The seminar is organized by the Yerevan Press Club (Armenia), the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung), Yeni Nesil Journalists’ Union (Azerbaijan) and Global Political Trends Centre.