Sevan Nishanian — Armenian intellectual, citizen of Turkey, civic activist, and prominent linguist — has been imprisoned in Turkey since January 2, 2014.
The cruel and unreasonable nature of the punishment handed down for this intellectual, the steady deterioration in the conditions of incarceration, and the looming threat of new and escalating charges and trials have prompted a group of civil society organizations’ representatives and activists to come together and form the International Committee for Freedom and Justice for Sevan Nishanian, Asbarez reports.
The committee regards Nishanian’s prison sentence as a mockery of justice and an unacceptable punitive measure that threatens the people’s right to freedom of thought.
The committee regards Nishanyan’s imprisonment as a clear manifestation of prejudice and malice. This blatant mistreatment is motivated by his being a dissident intellectual who fights against the dubious theories and official historiography generated by the mind-set (to apply that term generously) of the Turkish state.
The International Committee for Freedom and Justice for Sevan Nishanian calls on Turkish authorities to free Nishanian immediately and end the campaign of intimidation, harassment, and cruelty directed against him.
The committee calls on international entities and human rights organizations, and appeals to the wider court of public opinion, to condemn and fight for the removal of the coercion and restrictions faced by Sevan Nishanian, and to campaign for Sevan’s freedom.
The committee calls on all citizens of Turkey to stand by one of their own, an intellectual who has been victimized by the state’s relentless punitive machine, who has defended multiculturalism and fought so that it could prevail and flourish, and who has been an exemplar in this regard for his fellow countrymen and women.
This committee hereby declares that, in solidarity with others of free and strong will, it shall organize numerous events focusing on the Sevan Nishanian case in Turkey and abroad.
