Arrested novelist Aslı Erdoğan, linguist Necmiye Alpay released 

Turkish novelist Aslı Erdoğan and linguist Necmiye Alpay were released on Nov. 23 after being arrested on terror charges as part of an investigation into columnists and managers of the closed daily Özgür Gündem.

Alpay and Erdoğan had faced aggravated life sentences for allegedly conducting propaganda on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and are accused of being members of an armed terror organization and disrupting the unity of the state. Their arrests followed the Turkish government's closure of the pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem under the state of emergency after the July 15 coup attempt.