Scholar Sevan Nishanyan Escapes from Turkish Prison

“The bird flew away: Same wishes to the remaining 80 million”

ISTANBUL — Turkish- Armenian scholar and linguist Sevan Nishanyan, who has been serving a 17-year prison term since 2014, has escaped from the correctional facility, Turkish media reported.

Nishanyan exited the minimum security (open regime) prison in the morning of July 14 and hasn’t returned.

A tweet later appeared on his Facebook and Twitter accounts, saying: “The bird flew away: Same wishes to the remaining 80 million”.

Turkish historian and scholar Taner Akcam, a strong supporter of the Armenian Genocide recognition, reacted to Nishanyan’s tweet by saying: “Sevan Nishanyan has escaped by saying “the bird flew away”. With expectations of a free world for all birds….”, he said.

Nishanyan was arrested and imprisoned in Turkey for carrying out “illegal” construction in his own garden.

Even Turkish media said the arrest was an obvious framing by Turkish authorities, because Nishanyan has publicly criticized Turkey’s government’s mistakes.

Numerous activists and individuals have called for his release, saying that the true reason of his arrest is the fact that he dared to criticize the official history of Turkey by writing the “False Republic” book.