Armenian human right activist detained in house raid: report

by | Oct 8, 2019 | Today in Crackdown

Armenian human right activist detained in house raid: report

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.

“I was just called by the law enforcement agency. I was called to testify due to my tweets. If I am not checked in an hospital by my doctor tomorrow, I will go to the police to give a testimony. Until 864 imprisoned babies are set free, I will continue my tweets,” Avazyan tweeted.
Avazyan is known in Turkey with her tweets that are in critical of the Turkish government.
In the aftermath of a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, more than 17,000 women from all walks of life including teachers, doctors and housewives have been jailed in Turkey on coup charges in government-led operations. There are currently more than 800 children accompanying their mothers in Turkish jails.