Sevan Nişanyan

Sevan Nişanyan (Western Armenian: Սեւան Նշանեան; born 21 December 1956) is an Armenian writer, fugitive and lexicographer born in Turkey. 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 building infractions, and for allegedly insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad 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." He left for Montenegro in protest in 2022 after being briefly declared persona non grata following a conflict with Greek local authorities.