Sevan Nisanyan, a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin born in 1956, is without doubt one of the most colorful personalities in Turkish intellectual life. In the book Wrong Republic, he wrote about questioning the “Ataturk taboo” in Turkey, arousing the anger of secular-nationalist Turks. He outraged religious circles with his criticism of Muslim beliefs, has infuriated feminists and leftists and never hesitates to speak bluntly about the Armenian genocide.

Nisanyan is now in the first month of a two-year prison term in Torbali, Izmir province. Ostensibly, Nisanyan is in prison not for his contrarian views or identity, but because of "construction infractions." Is this really the case? Why did only Nisanyan end up in jail for building in an enviroment of rampant illegal construction? Is his jail term really to punish his contrarian views?

This all began in 1995, when Nisanyan moved to the village of Sirince, near the Selcuk township, in Izmir province. It was a small village no one had heard of before Nisanyan moved in and began to fix the roads, restore the crumbling houses and open small, charming bed and breakfasts.

Today, however, according to figures provided by Nisanyan’s ex-wife, Mujde Tonbekici, Sirince has become a major destination, attracting some 600,000 to 800,000 foreign and local tourists a year. Shortly after settling in Sirince, Nisanyan won the hearts of the local population with his contributions to the village. But all the construction and restoration work encountered serious bureaucratic barriers, and in 2001, he was sentenced to 10 months in jail for construction-related infractions.