Osman Kavala
Turkish businessperson and philanthropist
Mehmet Osman Kavala (born 2 October 1957) is a Turkish economist, businessman, philanthropist, and political activist. Kavala is the founder and chair of the board of Anadolu Kültür, an Istanbul-based nonprofit arts and culture organization.2
From Wikipedia’s article on Osman Kavala (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born Oct 2, 1957.1
About
In 2019, he received the European Archaeological Heritage Prize from the European Association of Archaeologists for his efforts to protect and preserve significant examples of cultural heritage in danger in Turkey and the Ayşenur Zarakolu Freedom of Thought and Expression Award by Human Rights Association's Istanbul branch. His arrests in Turkey caused the European Court of Human Rights and ambassadors from ten Western countries to demand his release. These demands were rejected by Turkish courts and president Erdoğan.
On 25 April 2022, a court sentenced him to life in prison due to his alleged relations with the Gülen movement and the Gezi park protests. Foreign policy analyst Steven A. Cook has described the allegations as false and ridiculous. In October 2023, Kavala was awarded the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, and in 2025 the Goethe Medal.
From Wikipedia’s article on Osman Kavala, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
- İletişim YayınlarıFounder13
Early life and education
Kavala comes from a family of tobacco traders. His family moved from Northern Greece to Turkey in the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Kavala was born in Paris in 1957 He attended Robert College in Istanbul. Kavala studied management at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara and economics at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, subsequently enrolling in PhD program at The New School for Social Research in New York City but returning to Istanbul upon his father's death in 1982. After his father's death, he took over the family-owned enterprise Kavala Companies.
From Wikipedia’s article on Osman Kavala (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career
Occupation: human rights defender, entrepreneur, patron of the arts, businessperson, philanthropist.6
- Date not recordedFounded İletişim Yayınları4
- Date not recordedFounded Anadolu Kültür5
Personal life
Kavala married Ayşe Buğra in 1988. Buğra is professor of political economy at the Atatürk Institute of Modern Turkish History of Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.
From Wikipedia’s article on Osman Kavala (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Legal issues and controversies
On 18 October 2017 Osman Kavala was detained at the Istanbul Atatürk Airport after his visit to Gaziantep for a joint project with Goethe Institute. On 25 October 2017, the newspaper Daily Sabah, close to the Erdoğan government, accused him of being a "business tycoon with a shady background" and having contacts with the "Gülenist Terror Group" (FETÖ).
On 1 November 2017, Kavala was arrested on both Article 309 and Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code. Article 309 ("attempts to abolish, replace or prevent the implementation of, through force and violence, the constitutional order of the republic of Turkey") was related to an investigation on the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, and Article 312 ("the use of force and violence, to abolish the government of the Republic of Turkey or to prevent it, in part or in full, from fulfilling its duties") was related to an investigation on Gezi Park protests.
Related to Article 312 or the Gezi Park Trial as it is referred to in the press, a criminal indictment seeking life imprisonment for Kavala and 15 other people, including journalist Can Dündar and actor Memet Ali Alabora, was accepted on 4 March 2019 by the Istanbul 30th Heavy Penal Court. The indictment accuses the defendants of forming the mastermind behind the scenes of the Gezi Park protests, which is characterized as an "attempt to overthrow the government through violence" in this document. The indictment also alleges that philanthropist George Soros was behind the conspiracy. The trial was to begin on the 24 June 2019. The verdict in the so-called Gezi Trial was only delivered on the 18 February 2020, when Kavala was acquitted.
On 18 February 2020, hours after his acquittal on Article 312, the chief prosecutor of Istanbul demanded the continued detention of Kavala due to Article 309, although Istanbul prosecutor's office had ordered him released on a pre-trial release judgment on Article 309 on 11 October 2019. On 19 February 2020, he was arrested once again for Article 309. He was acquitted from Article 309 on 20 March 2020.
On 9 March 2020, Kavala was arrested on Article 328 ("securing information that, due to its nature, must be kept confidential for reasons relating to the security or domestic or foreign political interests of the State, for the purpose of political or military espionage"). This arrest happened only one day before the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights about Kavala's pretrial detention demanding his release became final on 10 March.
Osman Kavala has been in Silivri Prison since 1 November 2017. After the court ruling on 20 March he has been arrested 3 times, and acquitted 2 times from the same crime related to Article 309.
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International reaction
French politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit, in a public letter to Osman Kavala on 29 March 2018, wrote, "I try to understand the reason behind your arrest, but I cannot apprehend it. (...) It is difficult to conceive the reason behind it. (...) I am convinced that democracy will triumph, and we will soon be able to toast to our common future by the Bosporus. I am waiting for you in Frankfurt".
European Court of Human Rights about Kavala's pretrial detention became final on 10 March. This ruling stated that there was no sufficient evidence to support the accusations against Kavala and that "the prosecution’s attitude could be considered such as to confirm the applicant’s assertion that the measures taken against him pursued an ulterior purpose, namely to reduce him to silence as an NGO activist and human-rights defender, to dissuade other persons from engaging in such activities and to paralyse civil society in the country." It also requested that the Turkish Government "take every measure to put an end to the applicant’s detention and to secure his immediate release."
Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth stated that "The immediate re-arrest of Osman Kavala in another bogus investigation after his acquittal on trumped-up charges for the Gezi Park protests shows how Turkey’s criminal justice system is politically manipulated, with detention and prosecutions pursued at the political whim of the president."
After the decision released by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers’ on 3 September 2020, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Human Rights Watch, and the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project demanded that Turkish authorities release Kavala immediately. In September 2021, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe gave Turkey until December 2021 to release Kavala before beginning infringement proceedings against Turkey. On 3 December 2021 Council of Europe (COE) says it will notify Turkey of its intention to launch "infringement proceedings" against the country over its failure to release philanthropist Osman Kavala.
On 23 October 2021, the demand for Kavala's release was supported by ten embassies (Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and United States), whose ambassadors were subsequently declared "persona non grata" in a statement by president Erdoğan. On 25 October, Erdogan backtracked on his initial threats to expel the ten ambassadors, stating that the diplomats had fulfilled their commitment to Article 41 of the Vienna Convention and that they would "be more careful in their statements."
British human rights activist and journalist, William Nicholas Gomes wrote to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to immediately and unconditionally release Osman Kavala. William Nicholas Gomes had sent this request via the Turkish Embassy in London, United Kingdom.
Amnesty International named Kavala a prisoner of conscience in 2022. On August 2026 it was reported by the BBC that the European rights court had ordered Turkey to release him.
From Wikipedia’s article on Osman Kavala (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awards
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataOsman Kavala on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaOsman Kavala on Wikipedia
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- 9WikidataOsman Kavala: award, on Wikidata
- 10Wikidataaward, as reported
- 11Wikidataaward, as reported
- 12Wikidataaward, as reported
- 13Wikidataİletişim Yayınları, Founder
- 14Wikimedia CommonsOsman Kavala photo by Janbazian, CC BY-SA 4.0