Arlet Natali AVAZYAN, an Armenian-origin Turkish human rights activist, was detained following a police raid on her house on Tuesday.
According to a Twitter account, police teams searched Avazyan’s house and then took her to the Anatolia Courthouse in İstanbul’s Kartal district.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) İstanbul deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu tweteed late on Tuesday that Avazyan was detained due to a family photo of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu she posted on Twitter. Tanrıkulu also said that she is going to spend the night in police custody.
Avazyan posted the photo of the Çavuşoğlu family from what she said was the year 1988 with a message, saying that Çavuşoğlu’s father was known as the “thief, Kurdish Osman” at the time.
Avazyan yesterday tweeted that she had been summoned by Turkish police to testify in a case filed against her for alleged terrorism links.
Sevgili @NataliAVAZYAN, Dışişleri Bakanı Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu ve ailesinin şikayeti üzerine sosyal medya paylaşımı nedeniyle gözaltına alınmıştır. Alanya Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığı'na ulaşılamadığı için de geceyi polis merkezinde geçirecek.
Takip ediyorum. Geçmiş olsun.— Sezgin Tanrıkulu (@MSTanrikulu) October 8, 2019
Değerli arkadasımız @NataliAVAZYAN Twiter paylaşımı sebebi ile az evvel emniyet mensupları nezaretinde evin de arama yapıldı. Birazdan İstanbul Anadolu adliyesine savcılıkta ifade vermek üzere götürülecek..
Savunma ve destek için hukukçu arkadaslardan ricamızdır.— Nurhan Çetinkaya (@nurhancetinkaya) October 8, 2019