Arrested in Greece, writer Sevan Nişanyan faces deportation to Turkey

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Having escaped from prison in Turkey in 2017 and living in Greece, writer Sevan Nişanyan has been arrested in the country.

Convicted of building a house in a naturally protected site in Şirince Neighborhood in İzmir's Selçuk in violation of the construction law, Nişanyan left the Foça Open Prison on leave in July 2017 and fled.

Making a statement about the recent arrest of Nişanyan on social media, his spouse İra Tzourou has said that the judge will decide which country Nişanyan will be deported to. Tzourou has mentioned the possibility that her spouse, a citizen of Armeni̇a, will be deported to Turkey.

In her Facebook post, İra Tzourou has briefly said:

"Greece is about to decide to deport Sevan Nişanyan, a citizen of Armeni̇a, to Turkey... The authorities of Greece who did not renew his residence permit stemming from his marriage to a Greek citizen on December 29, 2021 took him with a polite trick to the police station with his own will on December 30. Kept waiting there for an hour, he was arrested on the grounds that his residence permit expired a day before."

She has noted that the judge at the Siros courthouse will decide on Monday (today, January 3) to which country he will be deported to.

What happened?

Writer Sevan Nişanyan wanted to build a 60-square meter house in his land a kilometer away from Şirince Neighborhood in İzmir's Selçuk.

The construction site was sealed off twice on the grounds that the land was within a naturally protected area. Nişanyan completed the construction in spite of this and lawsuits were filed against him at the Selçuk 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance. The lawsuits filed on the grounds that the crime had been repeatedly committed started to be finalized in 2013 and Nişanyan was sent to Torbalı Open Prison on January 2, 2014.

In this period, Sevan Nişanyan served time in different prisons; he was once put in a closed prison for some time on the grounds of a disciplinary action. He was lastly sent to Foça Open Prison.

He was sentenced to 11.5 years in prison as his crimes were repeated and left the prison on leave once in three months and spent some time at hope. In July 2017, linguist - writer Sevan Nişanyan left Foça Open Prison on leave for home and fled by not returning to prison. (AÖ/SD)