Sevan Nişanyan

Sevan Nişanyan (; born 21 December 1956) is a Turkish-Armenian writer and lexicographer. Author of a number of books, Nişanyan was awarded the Ayşe Nur Zarakolu Liberty Award of the Turkish Human Rights Association in 2004 for his contributions to greater freedom of speech. He is also known for his work to restore Şirince, a semi-derelict village near Turkey's Aegean coast.

Sevan Nişanyan was given a cumulative prison sentence of 16 years and 7 months for alleged building infractions, after he criticized the government’s attempts to prohibit the Islamic prophet Muhammad's criticism in a blog entry in September 2012. He escaped from the prison in July 2017 and moved to Athens, where he intended to apply for political asylum, as stated in his interview to the Belgian daily ''La Libre Belgique''. He subsequently went to live in exile in Samos, stating that he is "grateful to the providence that the goatfuckers who run Turkey gave him, unintentionally, this splendid opportunity." In October 2021, while visiting Albania, he was reportedly declared persona non grata by the Greek authorities and banned from re-entry, with reason said to be a state secret. His undesirability, according to Athens Voice, was the information passed to the police by local Samos agents as if "the Turk is buying real estate", which, if it happened, would violate the law on non-purchase of real estate by foreigners in some border areas. On January 7, 2022, the Greek justice dismissed the case, prohibiting any deportation to Turkey. The Armenian Embassy in Greece said Nişanyan must leave Greece voluntarily within 15 days according to the court decision, adding that as he is a citizen of Armenia, "he can leave for Armenia if he wishes”. Provided by Wikipedia