Turkish academic and author Emrah Gülsunar has been arrested over a poll he posted on X that asked whether seeking foreign help to overthrow a dictatorial regime could be considered legitimate, Turkish Minute reported.
Gülsunar, 38, who was detained on Sunday evening, was arrested and sent to pretrial detention on Monday, his lawyer Hasan Sınar announced on X.
“My dear friend and client Emrah Gülsunar has just been arrested,” Sınar wrote, sharing the poll that reportedly led to his client’s detention.
Gülsunar shared the poll on X on Saturday, asking, “Is it legitimate or illegitimate to seek foreign assistance to overthrow a dictatorial government?” The post drew backlash from some social media users and pro-government groups.
Following criticism accusing him of referring to the Turkish government, Gülsunar said the question was taken out of context and was not about Turkey.
He explained that it was related to debates surrounding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded last week to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado for her efforts to promote democracy and a peaceful transition from the authoritarian rule of President Nicolás Maduro.
According to Gülsunar, the poll referred to discussions about whether opposition movements like Venezuela’s are justified in seeking international assistance to challenge dictatorship, not to Turkey’s political situation.
“I shared this poll in the context of the Nobel Prize debate about Venezuela, not Turkey,” he wrote. “The question itself is objective. It doesn’t express my own opinion.”
Turkish authorities have not publicly commented on the case, and it was not immediately clear what charges Gülsunar faces.
Known for his research on political systems and institutional change, Gülsunar earned a Ph.D. in economic history from Lund University in Sweden in 2021. His doctoral work examined how industrialization affected parliamentary reform in 18th and 19th-century Britain.
He is also the author of “Jakobenizm ve Kemalizm: Eleştirel Bir Karşılaştırma” (Jacobinism and Kemalism: A Critical Comparison), which examines parallels between revolutionary France’s Jacobin movement and Turkey’s early Republican ideology.
Gülsunar, who is an outspoken critic of what many say rising authoritarianism in Turkey, has around 90,000 followers on X.
Turkey, where freedom of expression has continued to deteriorate in recent years, is rated “Not Free” by Freedom House, a US-based watchdog that monitors political rights and civil liberties. In its Freedom in the World 2025 report, Turkey scored 33 out of 100, including 17 points for political rights and 16 for civil liberties.
