YEREVAN, JANUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. The representative of the Embassy of Armenia in Greece got acquainted with the detention conditions of Istanbul-Armenian intellectual Sevan Nishanian, ARMENPRESS reports the Embassy said on its Facebook page.

“Today, the representative of the Armenian Embassy in Greece visited the police department of Samos island where Istanbul-Armenian intellectual Sevan Nishanyan is located, got acquainted with the conditions”, the Embassy said.

Earlier, the embassy reported that it was aware of the process taking place around the Armenian intellectual from Istanbul, citizen of the Republic of Armenia Sevan Nishanian, and was taking all possible steps to resolve the issue.

Sevan Nishanian was sentenced to 17 years in prison in Turkey in 2014, but escaped from prison in 2017. On July 25, 2017, Nishanian applied to the Greek authorities for asylum. The Greek government has not extended the residence permit for Nishanian on the occasion of her marriage to a Greek citizen, which expired on December 29. According to the media reports, Nishanian was arrested on December 30 due to the expiration of his residence status. It is mentioned that a decision will be made to deport Nishanian.

Nishanian was arrested for allegedly some “construction frauds”. However, the media had stated that he was imprisoned because of publicly criticizing the Turkish Government. He always raised the issue of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey.