Hrant Kasparyan / Demokrat Haber

Linguist, tourism pioneer, and dissident writer Sevan Nishanian (Nişanyan) is being moved from the “maximum-security” Şakran Closed Prison in Aliağa to Yenipazar Closed Prison in Aydin.

This will the fourth prison stop for Nishanian, who started his sentence at Torbalı Open Prison on January 2 of this year. Nishanian had been tried and convicted of “illegal construction”; the building activity in question was the construction of a 40 sq m (431 sq ft) cottage on his own property, which was deemed “unauthorized” and “against code.”

Nishanian’s first move from Torbalı, an open (roughly equivalent to minimum-security) prison to Buca, a closed (roughly equivalent to maximum-security) prison onFebruary 26, had come about as a result of whistleblowing: Nishanian publicized theft by a prison guard, which led to an investigation, which led to the prison administration’s decision to banish him.

That Nishanian had started serving his sentence in an open prison was in line with the nature of the nonviolent crime he was alleged to have committed; his move to Buca’s maximum-security environment, by contrast, was widely condemned as unjust punishment and exile. In addition, the haste with which the transfer was ordered, without a court ruling in place, had been referred to as a miscarriage of justice by commentators.

At Buca, Sevan Nishanian was made to sleep on the cold concrete floor for several days—prison officials claimed that no cot was available—and was not allowed to shower. When there was a public outcry about the conditions that not only Nishanian but also the other inmates at Buca were subjected to, Nishanian was moved a second time, this time to Şakran, in İzmir province’s Aliağa district. This time the stated reason was that Nishanian’s life was at risk.

Four Prisons in Six Months

At Sakran, Nishanian was put in the same cellblock with inmates on trial for murder, facing life without possibility of parole. Soon thereafter, he was put in solitary, once again because his life was in danger. On May 27, Nishanian petitioned the prison administration, stating that he was unjustly being kept in isolation, the risk of bodily harm serving as a convenient excuse; he asked to be moved out of Şakran. The administration, having reviewed the petition, ordered today that Nishanian be moved to Yenipazar Closed Penal Facility in Aydın.

Demokrat Haber has learned that Yenipazar, where Mehmet Ağar was incarcerated in the past, has better conditions compared to Nishanian’s third location.

"Freedom for Sevan Nishanian"

Sait Çetinoğlu, a member of the International Committee for Freedom and Justice for Sevan Nishanian, pointed out that while this may technically qualify as an improvement, it is still incarceration in a maximum-security prison and a continuation of the pressure and restrictions facing one of the most prominent dissidents in Turkey. Çetinoğlu called for a reversal of Nishanian’s conviction and urged authorities to free him.

Speaking to Demokrat Haber, Çetinoğlu called the ongoing situation a plot, likening the latest prison move to “scaring a patient with death to get him to accept malaria as the lesser of two evils.” Pointing out that the committee has called for Nishanian’s sentence to be thrown out, his legal right to have access to an environment to continue his research and writing restored, and above all, his freedom given back, Çetinoğlu noted: “It is suggestive, to say the least, for Nishanian to be put away for four years, and be under threat to serve even longer as other cases filed against him make their way through the system, as the government prepares an organized campaign of denial leading up to 2015, the centennial of the 1915 Armenian Genocide.”

Çetinoğlu said that the Committee had been closely monitoring Nishanian’s incarceration saga and, following Nishanian’s May petition, written to international human rights and solidarity organizations for writers and journalists, providing details on the case and numerous legal violations associated with it.