Sevan Nişanyan (Western Armenian: Սեւան Նշանեան; born 21 December 1956) is a Turkish-Armenian writer, fugitive and lexicographer.

[2] Sevan Nişanyan was given a cumulative prison sentence of 16 years and 7 months for building infractions, and for allegedy insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in a blog entry in September 2012.

He escaped from the prison in July 2017 and moved to Athens, where he intended to apply for political asylum, as stated in his interview to the Belgian daily La Libre Belgique.

[3] He subsequently went to live in exile in Samos, stating that he is "grateful to the providence that the goatfuckers who run Turkey gave him, unintentionally, this splendid opportunity.

After graduating from the Private Armenian School of Pangaltı, he attended Robert College, then studied philosophy at Yale University, concentrating on Kant, Hegel, and Thomas Aquinas.

He did graduate studies in political science at Columbia University, where he worked under Giovanni Sartori, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Seweryn Bialer, and Douglas Chalmers.

The guide was immensely successful, topping national bestseller lists for ten consecutive years, and developing into a cultural icon of the ‘00s.

In 2010, he published Hocam, Allaha Peygambere Laf Etmek Caiz Midir, in which he wrote about the limits of free speech under Islam.

In October 2021, while visiting Albania, he was reportedly declared persona non grata by the Greek authorities and banned from re-entry, with reason said to be a state secret.

Constructed strictly along the lines of traditional Aegean rural architecture, the village offered summer courses in college-level and postgraduate mathematics.

Nişanyan also built Tiyatro Medresesi, a theater institute and actors’ retreat in the manner of mediaeval Muslim seminaries.

Nişanyan's Sözlerin Soyağacı: Çağdaş Türkçenin Etimolojik Sözlüğü (Etymological Dictionary of Contemporary Turkish), published in 2002[14] was the first work in its field.

The current version covers detailed etymological data on over 15.000 words, in most cases including text quotations of earliest attested instances.

The study examines place names from various languages, including Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Kurdish, and others, providing insights into their etymology and historical changes.

Nişanyan was handed a cumulative jail sentence of 16 years and 7 months for several crimes including illegal construction in a protected nature zone in Şirince.

"[30][31][32] In regard to the murder of school principal İbrahim Oktugan, Nişanyan stated: "It is right that someone who knowingly and willfully takes the life of a young person should be punished proportionately.