Osman Kavala, the 64-year-old patron of the arts, faces at least 30 years in prison, although even one of the judges finds him not guilty. But President Erdoğan sees his power threatened by him.
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Christiane Schloezer
With aggravated life imprisonment there is hardly a chance in Turkey, it ends after 30 years at the earliest or with death. A punishment for mass murderers? No, for a cultural patron. Osman Kavala’s “crime” is that he wants a more democratic Turkey. For President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the 64-year-old is a “terrorist”. His weapon: a cultural foundation called Anadolu Kültür, which the entrepreneur founded in 2002. With her he has since supported exhibitions in Istanbul commemorating the expulsion of the Greeks, Armenian-Turkish youth encounters, a Kurdish cultural center and many other artistic initiatives. Kavala was already in prison when he formulated what motivates him again: “The main source of my optimism are young people, artists and many thinking people” who “believe in common reason”. Erdoğan bases his power on a polarization of society, on sharp edges between friend and foe. Someone like Kavala, a tireless reconciler and admonisher who demands that social divisions be overcome, becomes a shining and therefore dangerous symbol for a different Turkey.