Your trusted source

The current Turkish authorities are capable of anything, since they showed that they can apply punitive measures and repression neglecting the opinion of the international community and even the positions of their allies, an Armenian turkologist said on Monday, referring to Turkish-Armenian intellectual Sevan Nişanyan’s call to Garo Paylan to immediately leave the country.

Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament representing the opposition People’s Democratic Party (HDP) warned on Wednesday that he has received intelligence about assassination plots targeting Turkish citizens living in Europe, among them Armenians, Alevis, Kurds, opposition politicians, intellectuals and reporters, who have left Turkey.

“This Turkey-based structure mobilized certain people to carry out these assassinations,” he warned.

In an interview with Panorama.am, Ruben Safrastyan, Director of the National Academy’s Institute of Oriental Studies, noted that having suffered at the hands of the Turkish authorities, Sevan Nişanyan gives such an advice to Paylan, clearing understanding who they are dealing with. “Thus, his cautiousness over Paylan’s case is quite realistic. The threat is real. Knowing that Paylan was Hrant Dink's junior colleague and continues to uphold his courageous principles, I find it hard to say whether he will follow Nişanyan’s advice. Anyways, we are dealing with a very courageous Armenian [political] figure, who could use a little bit of wariness,” he said.

Ruben Safrastyan highlighted the Turkish authorities will target any figure, who dares to voice about any faulty phenomenon in that country.

Turkish-Armenian intellectual, travel writer, entrepreneur, and researcher Sevan Nişanyan, who escaped prison and fled Turkey on July 14, 2017, has commented on Paylan’s assassination warnings, adding they deserve a special attention and study.

“If I were in Garo’s place, I would immediately leave the country,” he wrote on Twitter, adding by releasing such information Paylan also puts himself at risk.