Former mayor of Sur City in Turkey’s Diyarbakır Province, Abdullah Demirbaş, who has carried out numerous pro-Armenian activities, has been released from prison due to illness.

Demirbaş’s attorneys had submitted the forensic medical examination results to the court, and motioned the release of their client in order to have his medical treatment conducted outside, reported Agos Armenian bilingual weekly of Istanbul, Turkey.

The court ruled to commute Demirbaş’s restraining order so as to arrange his treatment outside prison.     

He was arrested on August 8, and on charges of being a “member of an illegal organization.”

At the initiative of then Mayor Abdullah Demirbaş of Sur, “Sur City Hall” was written in Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, and Assyrian on the sign placed at the entrance of the municipality building. Demirbaş has also published several Armenian tales in Armenian and in Turkish. In addition, and at his initiative, the Diyarbakır travel guide was published in Armenian. Furthermore, “Welcome” was written in Armenian on the signs that were placed on the roads entering Diyarbakır. In September 2013, and again at Demirbaş’s initiative, a memorial devoted to the Armenians, Kurds, Assyrians, Jews, and Yezidis, who were massacred in Turkey, was placed in Diyarbakır. Abdullah Demirbaş has also assisted in the restoration and ensuing maintenance of the Surp (Holy) Giragos Armenian Church of Diyarbakır.