Murat Özyaşar, an award-winning author and teacher who was detained by Turkish counterterrorism police on Oct. 1, was released on Friday, his wife Sibel Oral has announced.
“Murat called me, he has been released,” said Oral in a Twitter message.
The news about Özyaşar’s detention was also announced by his wife from her Twitter account. She wrote in a series of tweets on Oct.1 that the police raided their apartment at 5 a.m. and detained her husband after a search of the house. Oral added that no explanation was given as to the reason for Özyaşar’s detention.
Oral stated that the police took away some personal belongings including 3 USB flash drives, a memory card, a camera and a tablet computer. She said police wanted to take her computer as well, but after she said that she needs it for work, they allowed her to keep it. Oral is an editor at literature portal K24, which is an extension of the P24 journalism platform.
Detained author Özyaşar, who is also a teacher, was dismissed from his job under a government decree issued during a state of emergency declared in the wake of a military coup attempt in July.
Özyaşar received the Yunus Nadi Short Story Award and the Haldun Taner Story Award in 2009 and 2008, respectively.