Nişanyan Archives

Turkish authorities have frozen bank accounts belonging to Turkish-Armenian intellectual, writer, entrepreneur, and researcher Sevan Nisanyan, Ermenihaber reported.

I kept precautionary savings worth 12 thousand Turkish liras. The Turkish state seized that. It is not a state but a criminal gang,” Nisanyan wrote on Facebook.

To remind, Nisanyan – a staunch critic of the Turkish regime – was arrested and imprisoned in Turkey on Dec. 2, 2014 for carrying out “illegal” construction in his own garden, charges that were so obviously made up by Turkish authorities who had been seeking ways to silence the outspoken scholar and writer.

Nisanyan was allowed to leave prison for one day every three months and simply did not return after his latest sanctioned leave. “The bird has flown. Wish the same for 80 million left behind,” Nisanyan said in a Tweet on July 14, after his escape. According to the latest reports, he applied for political asylum in Greece.

As reported earlier, the Turkish authorities made a decision to demolish the Nisanyan House hotel complex. The decision prescribed demolition of 22 buildings, including the Nisanyan House, that were ‘illegally constructed in the environmental zone’ in Şirince village of Turkey’s Izmir province.

See below all contact information

Sevan Nichanian – Armenian intellectual, a citizen of Turkey, civil rights activist, former columnist for the liberal newspaper Taraf and bilingual weekly Agos, and eminent linguist – is imprisoned in Turkey in harsh conditions of confinement since January 2, 2014 . It is a situation that can only be described as psychological torture, and his health is deteriorating. The International Committee Freedom and Justice for Sevan Nişanyan [Nichanian] appealed to international agencies and organizations of human rights, and invites wider public to fight for the elimination of coercion and restrictions as facing the Armenian journalist. Liberty and Justice for Sevan Nichanian [Nişanyan]! Collectif VAN, a member of the support committee, relayed by the campaign.

International Committee Freedom and Justice for Sevan Nichanian [Nişanyan]

Urgent appeal to organizations of human rights

May 31, 2014

Sevan Nichanian – Armenian intellectual, a citizen of Turkey, civil rights activist, former columnist for the liberal newspaper Taraf and bilingual weekly Agos, and eminent linguist – is imprisoned in Turkey in harsh conditions of confinement since January 2, 2014 .

The severity and disproportion of the sentence against this intellectual, the continued deterioration of prison conditions, and the imminent threat of new charges and new trials led a group of representatives of civil society and intellectuals to meet and form the International Committee Freedom and Justice for Sevan Nichanian.

Our committee considers imprisonment Nichanian as a travesty of justice and an unacceptable punitive measure that threaten the right of individuals to freedom of thought. The Committee considers that the imprisonment of Nichanian is the obvious manifestation of prejudice and malice. This gross mistreatment is motivated by the fact that this is a dissident intellectual who fights against bad theories and the official historiography generated by the mind (to use that term with indulgence) of the State Turkish.

The International Committee Freedom and Justice for Sevan Nichanian called the Turkish authorities to immediately release Nichanian and to end the campaign of intimidation, harassment and cruelty against him.

The Committee appealed to international agencies and organizations with rights and invites wider public opinion to condemn these acts and to fight for the elimination of coercion and restrictions faced by Sevan Nichanian, in campaigning for freedom of Sevan.

The Committee calls on all sensitive individuals, organizations and citizens of Turkey, to support one of them, an intellectual who was a victim of relentless repressive machinery of the state, who championed multiculturalism and fought for that be able to prevail and prosper, and has been a model in this regard for his fellow citizens.

The committee believes that, in a country where illegal construction is widespread, and where almost all government facilities are built illegally, it is only a pretext to imprison an outspoken critic under the charges of violation of prohibition of construction. Sevan Nichanian is in conditions that can only be described as psychological torture, and his health is deteriorating. Therefore, the Committee requests the assistance of all international organizations of human rights to redress the situation of Sevan Nichanian by restoring his rightful freedom.

Translation: Collectif VAN
(Nota Bene: The Turkish spelling is Nişanyan Sevan Sevan Nishanian in English and in French Nichanian Sevan.)

Liberty and Justice for Sevan Nichanian [Nişanyan]
Ali Ertem, Anjel Dikme Ara Baliozian, Atilla Dirim, Attila Tuygan, Baskin Oran, Can Baskent, Dalita Roger Hacyan, David Gaunt, Doğan Özgüden, Metin Erkan Erol Özkoray, Esther Schulz-Goldstein, Fikret Baskaya, Gerayer Koutcharian, Gurgen Khandjyan Hrant Kasparyan, Hrach Kalsahakian, Hranush Kharatyan Ibrahim Seven Ischkhan Chiftjian Ismail Beşikçi, Karine Khutikyan, KM-Mahmut Konuk Mesut Tufan, Nadya Uygun, Nurhan Becidyan, Perj Zeytuntsyan Raffi Hermonn Arax, Ramazan Gezgin Sait Cetinoglu Sako Aryan, Séta Papazian, Sevak Artsruni, Sibel Ozbudun, Sirri Sureyya Onder, Taner Akcam, Tessa Hofmann, Tigran Paskevitchyan, Demirer, Tzourou Ira, Vahagn Chakhalyan Vartan Tashjian, Yalcin Ergundogan, Zeynep Tanbay.

Address:
Liberty and Justice for Nişanyan [Nichanian]
International Committee
Eschenheimer Anlage 20 AD – 60318 Frankfurt
Germany

Contacts:

Turkey: Can Cetinoglu. Tel: + 905 32 71 84 644; E mail: cetinoglus@gmail.com
Armenia: Sako Aryan. Tel: + 374 77 79 24 64; E mail: sakoarian@gmail.com
Middle East: Hrach Kalsahakian. Tel: + 971 50 614 4787; E mail: kalsahakian@gmail.com
Germany: Ali Ertem. Tel: +49 69 59 70 813; E mail: skd@gmx.net
France: Séta Papazian. Tel: + 33 1 77 62 70 77; E mail: comitedesoutien@collectifvan.org
USA: Nadya UYGUN. Tel: + 1 239 304 18 49; E mail: nad0910@hotmail.com