Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland is concerned about the detention of the Turkish group of scientists.

"I am very concerned by the detention of a group of academics including Hakan Altinay and will raise this alarming development with the Turkish government as a matter of urgency,” he said in a statement

As reported earlier, Turkish police detained 12 people, including two prominent academics, on Friday as part of an investigation into leading rights activist and businessman Osman Kavala and his cultural organization

Osman Kavala is one of the well-known human rights defenders of Turkey. He is known for defending the rights of national minorities. Numerous books on the Armenian Genocide were published in his printing house in Istanbul, and a lot of discussions on the Armenian Genocide and commemoration ceremonies were organized in his restaurant Jezair.