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TURKEY TROUBLE: ARMENIAN TOURISTS SPOOKED BY ONE-SIDED ACCOUNTS OF VIOLENCE IN NEIGHBORING STATE
Siranuysh Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow
Social | 30.07.10 | 12:52
Reported violence in Turkey involving holidaymakers from Armenia
and at least one case of an Armenian citizen gone missing in the
neighboring country have raised concerns in Yerevan about possible
ethnic motives behind these developments. While it appears that the
reports were sensationalized and information not verified, the result,
nonetheless, has been that some Armenian tourists are now nervous
about going for a Turkish holiday.
A local tour operator offering trips to Turkish spas and resorts says
following these one-sided accounts they've seen an increased number of
telephone inquiries from concerned citizens who were hesitating whether
to choose to spend their summer vacations in Turkey (whose resorts are
believed to offer a better value for money than local holiday spots).
(Armenia and Turkey share a history of mutual animosity and despite
efforts at the level of political leaderships in recent years to
mend fences still do not have diplomatic relations and their common
border remains closed. Still, a large number of Armenians, including
citizens of Armenia, live or stay in Turkey for work and go there
for rest every year).
Reports about a pregnant Armenian woman who went missing in Turkey
and an Armenian family that suffered violence in a hotel have been
spreading through media and online social networks in recent days.
Many, among them also some officials, have been giving some political
coloring to these events, urging people to refrain from traveling to
Turkey for vacation.
Quoting Turkish daily newspaper Sabah, Armenian media reported that
29-year-old Anna Davtyan (she is married and lives in Dubai, the
United Arab Emirates, and is in her sixth month of pregnancy) went
missing in mysterious circumstances as she has not been seen since
she parted with her friend at a hotel in Ankara on July 17. Davtyan's
mother Karina Davtyan, who went to Turkey to find her daughter,
fears she might have been kidnapped.
No further information is available about this case. Armenian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan told ArmeniaNow that the Ministry was
working in the direction of finding the missing citizen, but did not
elaborate on concrete steps being made. The spokesman said the Ministry
was informed about the case only twelve days after it supposedly
happened, which, according to him, is "strange". But the official
promised that the Ministry will keep the public updated on this case
if information of any value pertaining to the case becomes available.
Another Armenian family on a holiday in Turkey returned mostly
unscathed, but have told of the ordeal they had to go through while
staying in a Turkish hotel. According to their accounts, they suffered
because together with a group of young men from Russia (two of them
ethnic Armenians) they stood up to defend two girls from Moscow,
one of whom was also an ethnic Armenian, and that resulted in a brawl
and a fistfight with hotel workers.
Liana Mamyan says her son and husband did nothing wrong but were
mistreated by Turkish hotel workers. She said that the Russian girls
were sitting in the hotel's foyer and working on their notebook when a
waiter came and rudely dragged the table cloth. The girls reproached
the waiter who started to argue with them and then four young men
from Russia joined in the quarrel and that's how the fight between
the hotel workers and the four men began. According to Mamyan, hotel
workers also beat her elder son and her husband.
"We have decided one thing for sure in our family. We will never,
ever go to Turkey again," Mamyan concluded in her published account.
What objectively appears an isolated incident not connected to
locale or nationality, has gained an ethnic coloring as the family's
account has been disseminated and discussed in internet forums and
on television.
The issue of whether Armenians should go to Turkey as holidaymakers
has generated heated debates in Armenia for years. Those who advise
against spending vacations in Turkey usually say that by going there
Armenians help Azerbaijan, Turkey's ethnic cousin and Armenia's
archrival in the region, because Turkey ostensibly sends the money
left by Armenians in Turkish resorts to Baku.
In a recent TV interview Gagik Yeganyan, head of the Migration Agency
at the Ministry of Local Government of Armenia, recalled the statement
containing threats to deport Armenians staying in Turkey illegally
that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made earlier this
year. He alleged that some ordinary Turks may have taken those words
as a call to action.
But Tez Tour Ltd director Narine Davtyan told ArmeniaNow that media
in Armenia have been spreading the news of recent violence involving
Armenians in Turkey without checking facts with them. (Tez Tour,
a major Russian tour operator that has an affiliate in Armenia, had
organized the trip for the family in question and says it possesses
first-hand information from its representative in Antalya.)
"In fact, the incident happened at about 1-2 a.m. and it was waiters
asking the girls repeatedly to take their notebook off the table so
they could prepare it for the morning breakfast, and those repeated
request remained unanswered. An angry waiter then took the notebook
and put it on another table," says Davtyan, adding that at that moment
a group of four young Russians approached and the quarrel began.
According to Davtyan, that incident did not involve any political or
ethnic motives and the cause was the disrespectful attitude towards
the waitress, which "can often be met in Yerevan as well."
"In general, hotels in Antalya are apolitical because they are
interested in the business side of things," says Davtyan, adding that
this is the first such incident that happened to their tourists in
Turkey. She also says that they first learned about it from press
publications and that none of the people who claim to have suffered
violence from Turkish hotel workers have lodged a complaint with
the company.
From: A. Papazian
Siranuysh Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow
Social | 30.07.10 | 12:52
Reported violence in Turkey involving holidaymakers from Armenia
and at least one case of an Armenian citizen gone missing in the
neighboring country have raised concerns in Yerevan about possible
ethnic motives behind these developments. While it appears that the
reports were sensationalized and information not verified, the result,
nonetheless, has been that some Armenian tourists are now nervous
about going for a Turkish holiday.
A local tour operator offering trips to Turkish spas and resorts says
following these one-sided accounts they've seen an increased number of
telephone inquiries from concerned citizens who were hesitating whether
to choose to spend their summer vacations in Turkey (whose resorts are
believed to offer a better value for money than local holiday spots).
(Armenia and Turkey share a history of mutual animosity and despite
efforts at the level of political leaderships in recent years to
mend fences still do not have diplomatic relations and their common
border remains closed. Still, a large number of Armenians, including
citizens of Armenia, live or stay in Turkey for work and go there
for rest every year).
Reports about a pregnant Armenian woman who went missing in Turkey
and an Armenian family that suffered violence in a hotel have been
spreading through media and online social networks in recent days.
Many, among them also some officials, have been giving some political
coloring to these events, urging people to refrain from traveling to
Turkey for vacation.
Quoting Turkish daily newspaper Sabah, Armenian media reported that
29-year-old Anna Davtyan (she is married and lives in Dubai, the
United Arab Emirates, and is in her sixth month of pregnancy) went
missing in mysterious circumstances as she has not been seen since
she parted with her friend at a hotel in Ankara on July 17. Davtyan's
mother Karina Davtyan, who went to Turkey to find her daughter,
fears she might have been kidnapped.
No further information is available about this case. Armenian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan told ArmeniaNow that the Ministry was
working in the direction of finding the missing citizen, but did not
elaborate on concrete steps being made. The spokesman said the Ministry
was informed about the case only twelve days after it supposedly
happened, which, according to him, is "strange". But the official
promised that the Ministry will keep the public updated on this case
if information of any value pertaining to the case becomes available.
Another Armenian family on a holiday in Turkey returned mostly
unscathed, but have told of the ordeal they had to go through while
staying in a Turkish hotel. According to their accounts, they suffered
because together with a group of young men from Russia (two of them
ethnic Armenians) they stood up to defend two girls from Moscow,
one of whom was also an ethnic Armenian, and that resulted in a brawl
and a fistfight with hotel workers.
Liana Mamyan says her son and husband did nothing wrong but were
mistreated by Turkish hotel workers. She said that the Russian girls
were sitting in the hotel's foyer and working on their notebook when a
waiter came and rudely dragged the table cloth. The girls reproached
the waiter who started to argue with them and then four young men
from Russia joined in the quarrel and that's how the fight between
the hotel workers and the four men began. According to Mamyan, hotel
workers also beat her elder son and her husband.
"We have decided one thing for sure in our family. We will never,
ever go to Turkey again," Mamyan concluded in her published account.
What objectively appears an isolated incident not connected to
locale or nationality, has gained an ethnic coloring as the family's
account has been disseminated and discussed in internet forums and
on television.
The issue of whether Armenians should go to Turkey as holidaymakers
has generated heated debates in Armenia for years. Those who advise
against spending vacations in Turkey usually say that by going there
Armenians help Azerbaijan, Turkey's ethnic cousin and Armenia's
archrival in the region, because Turkey ostensibly sends the money
left by Armenians in Turkish resorts to Baku.
In a recent TV interview Gagik Yeganyan, head of the Migration Agency
at the Ministry of Local Government of Armenia, recalled the statement
containing threats to deport Armenians staying in Turkey illegally
that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made earlier this
year. He alleged that some ordinary Turks may have taken those words
as a call to action.
But Tez Tour Ltd director Narine Davtyan told ArmeniaNow that media
in Armenia have been spreading the news of recent violence involving
Armenians in Turkey without checking facts with them. (Tez Tour,
a major Russian tour operator that has an affiliate in Armenia, had
organized the trip for the family in question and says it possesses
first-hand information from its representative in Antalya.)
"In fact, the incident happened at about 1-2 a.m. and it was waiters
asking the girls repeatedly to take their notebook off the table so
they could prepare it for the morning breakfast, and those repeated
request remained unanswered. An angry waiter then took the notebook
and put it on another table," says Davtyan, adding that at that moment
a group of four young Russians approached and the quarrel began.
According to Davtyan, that incident did not involve any political or
ethnic motives and the cause was the disrespectful attitude towards
the waitress, which "can often be met in Yerevan as well."
"In general, hotels in Antalya are apolitical because they are
interested in the business side of things," says Davtyan, adding that
this is the first such incident that happened to their tourists in
Turkey. She also says that they first learned about it from press
publications and that none of the people who claim to have suffered
violence from Turkish hotel workers have lodged a complaint with
the company.
From: A. Papazian