YEREVAN, APRIL 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenian intellectual, citizen of Turkey, civic activist, and prominent linguist Sevan Nishanyan has announced that he appeared in Izmir Aliagha prison for being an Armenian and socialist. Armenpress reports citing the Turkish DemokratHaber agency website that the writer informed about it at the course of the meeting with the member of monitoring committee of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Nureddin Demir when the latter visited him in prison.

Nureddin Demir told about the poor prison conditions of Sevan Nishanyan. To his question why he appeared in prison, Nishanyan responded: “I cannot keep my mouth closed. I have never had good relations with officials. Shortly speaking, I am an Armenian, socialist and used to speaking dramatically. For these features many criminal cases have been opened against me. If in another case they would be ignored, in my case the authorities regard is as a crime”.

Sevan Nishanyan said that in recent years his relations with the Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan have worsened. According to him, Erdogan attacked on him since during the period he worked in “Taraf” newspaper, he published critical articles regarding Erdogan.