In October 1980 Fr . Manuel Yergatian was arrested at Istanbul airport while on his way to Jerusalem . He was accompanying a group of students of the Armenian Patriarchate 's Seminary in Jerusalem for the summer . Marsden wrote that he was initially arrested because the Turkish authorities claimed that a guard-dog at the Jerusalem Patriarchate 's museum was named " Ataturk " ( in reality , it was named " Doggy " ) . When stopped , Yergatian was in possession of a 1950 autobiography of an Armenian priest whose text contained references to the Armenian Genocide as well as an 1888 map showing Armenia . Because of this he was charged with the possession of maps that indicated Armenian territory within modern-day Turkey . During his detention while awaiting trial he was tortured by having his fingernails and toenails torn out . Fr . Yergatian was charged under articles 140 and 242 of Turkish law with " having participated in activities against the state and damaging the interests of the country by utilizing his priesthood . " On September 2 , 1982 Patriarch Shenork I Kaloustian of Constantinople appeared in court to speak on behalf of Fr . Yergatian . In March 1983 , after an excessively long pre-trial detention , Fr . Yergatian was sentenced by a Turkish Military Court to 14 years in prison to be followed by 4 years and 8 months of internal exile . His imprisonment and torture caused him great physical and psychological damage from which he never fully recovered and resulted in numerous ailments . In 1986 he was released after a US Congressional delegation visited Turkey to discuss his case with Turkish officials
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Manuel Yergatian