This article originally appeared on December 19, 2019. We are republishing it here, slightly updated.
Most recently, Osman Kavala was only seen in the courtroom of a Turkish maximum security prison – as a defendant. Slender, tall, gray-haired, with a straight back he stood in front of the judges’ table. And was led away again, over a ramp out of the 1000 square meter hall, directly into the underground of the prison complex. The finish was reminiscent of a stage show. That went well with this process, which seems like a political farce.
“It hurts to realize that a state does not value the freedom of its own citizens,” wrote Kavala, the Turkish patron of culture and entrepreneur, to his friends and helpers. He had just been in custody for a year. It’s been four years now.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once called Kavala – and this should sound disparaging – the “Soros of Turkey” because, like the US billionaire, he supports civil rights organizations. His foundation, established in 2002, supports art projects for Kurds and refugee children from Syria, an Armenian-Turkish youth orchestra, and exhibitions on the expulsion of the Greeks. Kavala’s father got rich in the tobacco trade. After his death in 1982, the son took over the business, including mines and real estate. He later retired from active business and became a full-time philanthropist.
The 657-page indictment accuses Kavala of having financed the Gezi protests in 2013. Initially aimed at saving a small Istanbul park, they developed into the biggest protests against the Erdoğan government that ever existed. Kavala has always denied having financed it. Co-accused – but at large – are 15 academics, architects, actors who are associated with Kavala, including Asena Günal, who has now been awarded the prize. All of them face up to 30 years imprisonment.
In 2019, the European Court of Human Rights sharply condemned the long pre-trial detention for Kavala. Obviously, according to the court, a human rights defender should be silenced here. As a member of the Council of Europe, Turkey actually has to obey the judgments of the court, but it has already found excuses in other cases.
Kavala was a cooperation partner of the Goethe-Institut and other international cultural institutions for years. Prominent visitors to Turkey, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, liked to talk to him.
There are always many weeks between the trial days. After the hearing in October 2019, Kavala’s wife Ayşe Buğra, an economics professor, appeared together with her lawyers. She had previously held back with public statements. It was noticeably difficult for her to speak. She said her husband’s mother was over 90 years old, “she is waiting for her son”. And: “It’s difficult when you no longer have confidence in the judiciary.”