Local Turkish officials are indignant at reports that a group of Armenian Americans have raised Armenian and Karabakh flags on Mount Ararat. The administration of Turkey's eastern Agri (Ararat) Province has started an investigation into the claim.
The unnamed official told Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper that the investigation aimed to find out where the mountaineers had stayed and who accompanied them to the peak.
The president of the Agri Province chamber of commerce, Mehmet Erat, said if local citizens “knew about it [the flags], they would bury the climbers on Ararat”. He said the flags would be taken down and replaced with the Turkish national flag, Turkish Habermynet website reported.
"We will find these Armenian mountaineers and make them sew a Turkish flag and raise it in the place of the Armenian one on Mount Ararat," Mehmet Ertan said.
Mount Ararat lies in Turkey, but is considered by many Armenians as a national symbol.
On 15 July, a team of 11 men, including six from southern California, two from New Jersey, two from Canada, and one from Fresno, reached the summit of Mount Ararat, Los Angeles-based Armenian newspaper Asbarez reported.
The head of the Turkish Mountaineering Federation, Aladdin Karaca, told Hurriyet newspaper that the climbers had not received official permission and had climbed Mount Ararat illegally.
Although the team got the proper permits needed for the climb, once they got there they were told that the Ministry of Tourism had sent a fax saying that they had cancelled the permits.
Noel Gharibian, one of the climbers stated that for the Kurds in the area it was more about business and actually getting people up on the mountain. Thus, the team was able to go on with the climb.
1news.az, Habermynet, Asbarez, Hurriyet
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