Turkish academic and author Emrah Gülsunar was released from pretrial detention on Monday after spending 36 days behind bars over a social media poll that prosecutors claim was an attempt to incite the commission of a crime, Turkish Minute reported, citing the İstanbul-based Media and Law Association.
An İstanbul court ordered his release under a travel ban following his first hearing.
Gülsunar, who was arrested on October 11, appeared before the İstanbul 51st Criminal Court of First Instance to face charges of attempting to publicly incite a crime through the press, a reference to a poll he posted on X asking whether seeking foreign assistance to “overthrow a dictatorial regime” could be considered legitimate.
In his defense he said the poll was taken out of context and was related to discussions that erupted after Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado received this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. He said he published the poll to highlight debates over whether opposition movements under authoritarian rule may seek international support.
“My field is political science. We classify regimes as democratic, authoritarian or hybrid,” he told the court. “What I shared was intended to draw attention to this debate. This is not my personal opinion, it is a scientific fact. Democratic and hybrid regimes change through elections; authoritarian regimes experience coups or revolutions. This is basic political science.”
Gülsunar insisted that his post had nothing to do with Turkey. “I referred to Venezuela. Two years ago, I even wrote that Turkey is not a dictatorial regime,” he said. “For a political scientist to be told not to discuss politics is like telling a physicist not to talk about thermodynamics.”
Gülsunar’s post drew backlash from some social media users and pro-government groups who accused him of implying that foreign intervention was justified against the Turkish government. He denied the allegation, saying his question was “objective” and unrelated to Turkey’s political situation.
In his defense, the academic said he was targeted by online campaigns after the poll went viral, deleted the post to prevent further harassment and was then detained in a midnight raid. “My post does not disrupt public order,” he said.
“But this trial is pressure on freedom of expression and academic freedom. I feel that pressure in my life. I was teaching at Kültür University; I no longer can. A peer-reviewed article of mine has been halted. I have been detained for 36 days. Does this seem fair?”
Lawyers: Case built on unlawful evidence
His lawyer, Professor Hasan Sınar, said the post clearly referred to Venezuela and should be evaluated in that context. “Turkey should not be a country where academics are punished for tweets in 2025,” he said.
Another lawyer, Mehmet Can Seyhan, claimed that key evidence was collected through the “Sanal Devriye” (Virtual Patrol) monitoring system, which was annulled by the Constitutional Court. “This evidence is illegal; it is the fruit of a poisonous tree,” he said. “You cannot prosecute an academic for conducting a poll. Criminalizing this means criminalizing academic freedom.”
After the prosecutor requested that Gülsunar remain jailed pending trial, the court ruled for his release under a travel ban. The next hearing is scheduled for January 30, 2026.
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 is 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.
