Writer Nurcan Baysal arrested for opposing war

T24 columnist Nurcan Baysal was arrested this morning with the grounds cited of her social media posts in opposition to the “Olive Branch” operation being staged by the Turkish Armed Forces targeting Afrin.
 
Lawyer Reyhan Baydemir, who spoke to T24, said the following:
 
“My client had her door broken down and was arrested at around 00:10 hours this morning. She is being held at the counterterrorism branch. I spoke to her this morning and they had cited her Afrin posts as grounds. I will also have a meeting with the prosecutor over the course of the day.”
 
“The arresting of Nurcan who was moved to sorrow wishing not a single person to have a nosebleed”
 
Former Motherland Party General Chair Nesrin Nas, who gave word of Baysal’s arrest on her social media account, posted, “The arresting of Nurcan who was moved to sorrow wishing not a single person to have a nosebleed.”
 
Among those to express outrage at the arrest procedure was HDP Adana MP Meral Danış Beştaş, who commented, “The arrest of even a writer for opposing war and her social media posts vindicates opposition to war.”
 
Nurcan Baysal’s last Tweet was as follows:
 
Racist fascists who are engaging in warmongering!
I am opposed to war, a Kurd, a Romani, a Jew, an Arab, LGBT, an Armenian, a Yazidi ... in short everyone you hate. Do not follow me.
 
Who is Nurcan Baysal?
 
Nurcan Baysal, who was born in Diyarbakır in 1975, is a graduate of Diyarbakır Anatolian High School and Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences. She completed her master’s degree at Bilkent University. Between the years of 1997-2007, she managed projects on development and poverty in Diyarbakır and its environs in connection with the United Nations Development Programme.
 
Between the years of 2008-2013, she worked as rural development programme director at the Hüsnü Özyeğin Foundation. She participated in the founding and work of various civil society organisations concerned with forced migration, poverty, development, women and the Kurdish problem in Diyarbakır.
 
Nurcan Baysal, one of the founders of Diyarbakır Political and Social Research Institute, acts as a consultant for various international fund organisations and foundations such as the Global Fund for Women and the Emergency Support Fund. She writes in a variety of magazines and newspapers on topics such as the Kurdish problem, development and poverty. Her books “That Day” (2014) and “Civil Society in Kurdistan” (together with Şeyhmus Diken, 2015) were published by İletişim. Baysal is one of the members of the Platform of Struggle for the Forcibly Detained Women set up in Diyarbakır in 2015 to rescue women who were being forcibly detained by Islamic State and to show solidarity with them.