According to research conducted by KONDA, 41 percent of society finds the arrest of comedian Deniz Göktaş “wrong,” while 34 percent said they find it “right.”
In its July 2026 Barometer, KONDA included the case of comedian Deniz Göktaş, who was arrested on July 3 on charges of “inciting the public to hatred and hostility.”
In the study conducted on July 11–12 with 1,895 people, interviewees were asked whether they agreed with the statement, “I find Göktaş’s arrest right.”
While 22 percent of the participants stated they found Göktaş’s arrest “definitely wrong,” 19 percent said they found it “wrong.”
Fifteen percent of the interviewees answered “definitely right” and 19 percent answered “right.”
Survey participants were also asked about the statement, “Anything can be the subject of humor.” Only 16 percent of the interviewees said “I agree” with this statement.
Additionally, the research included analyses of which party participants would prefer to vote for if an election were held today, whom they want to govern Türkiye, potential Presidential election scenarios between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and detained Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, as well as between Erdoğan and Özgür Özel, and an analysis of Erdoğan’s report card grade.
What had happened?
Göktaş was investigated on allegations of “insulting the President” and “degrading religious values” due to statements he used in his stand-up show titled “Ölü Deniz” (The Dead Sea), which was published on YouTube on June 24. Detained at Istanbul Airport on July 2, Göktaş was arrested the following day and sent to the Çorlu Karatepe High-Security Penal Execution Institution in Tekirdağ.
