Turkish scholar Yektan Turkyilmaz told a Yerevan district court on 12 August that he did not deliberately try to smuggle valuable antique books out of Armenia, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. Turkyilmaz, who spent two months in Armenia earlier this summer conducting research into the 1915 genocide, was apprehended on 17 June at Yerevan\'s Zvartnots Airport. He had 89 rare books, some dating from the 17th century, in his luggage when he was detained. Turkyilmaz said in court on 12 August, that he was unaware of the legal requirement to obtain official permission to export any books published more than 50 years ago. The prosecution claims that he was informed of that requirement by a Yerevan bookseller who sold him some of the volumes in question. Also on 12 August, U.S.-born opposition politician and former Foreign Minister Raffi Hovannisian deplored the prosecution of Turkyilmaz, arguing that \"it is hard to imagine a more powerful blow to international affirmation of the Armenian genocide than this trial,\" RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. (RFE/RL)