Epress.am News from Armenia
Yerevan Press Club Director Boris Navasardian yesterday remarked on the incidents which took place at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport yesterday morning.
As reported earlier by the Epress.am correspondent who was on the scene, Turkey’s border security guards at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport threatened to deport journalists from Armenia who had arrived for a Sept. 13–15 conference titled “The Role of Media in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict and Advancement of Regional Security and Cooperation.” Passengers on that particular flight were interrogated and had their passports taken away.
Navasardian said that the majority of the passengers on that Yerevan-Istanbul flight were subject to degrading treatment by Turkey’s Migration Services (passport control).
“Yes, degrading… I understand when certain migration activities are carried out; however, these [activities] were carried out only on one flight. We could see very well that at the same time, passengers were coming out from other flights, but only the 20 passengers coming from Yerevan were subjected to that protocol,” he said.
For that reason, passport control officers’ explanation that they have to follow certain rules didn’t satisfy the Armenian journalists.
“Another group of journalists invited to Istanbul by the Hrant Dink Foundation were with us on the same flight. Though the foundation’s representatives explained that they’re travelling by group and they provided the necessary documents and invitation, they interrogated them separately, demanding that they prove that they have sufficient resources for their stay in Turkey,” Navasardian told our Epress.am correspondent in Istanbul.
The Yerevan Press Club Director noted that it’s difficult not to see a trend in what happened.
“Despite current complicated relations with Armenia, we’ve always viewed Turkey as a country with such a level of civilization that allows for international and regional events to take place in this area. It’s not coincidental that we again chose Istanbul and a number of other cities in Turkey where, considering the complex relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the complications involved in holding such events in Yerevan and Baku, we had decided to hold our conference,” he said.
He added that, considering this latest incident, the Armenian participants have requested official explanations, otherwise, in Navasardian’s words, “we will be forced to reconsider our attitude toward this city, toward this country, as a place where we can meet under normal conditions, [and] carry out constructive work.”
“A person with self-respect cannot allow for that which took place this morning to happen a second or third time. I hope that certain explanations will come and we will have a chance to archive [that is, forget] this incident,” said Navasardian yesterday.