Turkish-Armenian Deputy Selina Dogan from Turkey’s major oppositional People’s Republican Party has submitted to the Turkish Ministry of Justice an interpellation regarding the condition of Sevan Nishanian, who has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

As reports “Armenpress”, citing Agos Weekly, in her interpellation, Dogan mentioned that an average of 3,000 cases are heard every year by the corresponding article of the Turkish law on protection of cultural and natural riches applied against Nishanian, by which the culprits have not been punished for more than two years, and those in prison have been released after a short while.

In her interpellation addressed to Turkish Minister of Justice Kenan Ipek, Selineh Dogan has asked how many cases have been instigated against people in the past 10 years and how many people have been sentenced to prison or a fine, how many people have been sent to prison, and how many people have been conditionally imprisoned, besides Sevan Nishanian and if there are any other people sentenced to prison by that law. The period of imprisonment for historian, writer, linguist and journalist Sevan Nishanian, who was arrested under false allegations of being Armenian, has been extended by 4 years and 7 months, meaning Nishanian will serve for 11 years and 1 month. In April, the Court of Appeals had upheld the court’s previous decision on extending the period of imprisonment by 4 years and 7 months in accordance with three different criminal cases. Sevan Nishanian, who has been in prison since January 2014, was arrested for “illegal” construction in an area that didn’t belong to him.

Earlier, Turkish presses had reported that Nishanian’s arrest was linked to the Turkish authorities since the intellectual had publicly criticized the government’s flaws several times. In relation to that, DemokratHaber wrote that there is no difference between the trial against Nishanian and the Armenian intellectuals who were arrested and killed in 1915. Earlier, Nishanian had sent from prison a letter to the Turkish authorities, telling them that they can’t intimidate him or bring him down to his knees.