The resigning German Chancellor Angela Merkel (67) paid a nice farewell visit to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (67). And the governments of the two countries are already in a great dispute again. The reason: the way the Turkish government deals with the entrepreneur, human rights activist and patron Osman Kavala (64).
Kavala has been in prison for four years. There are many allegations against him, but none. Pressure from the EU and from ambassadors from ten countries completely angered Erdogan and hardened the fronts. Blick explains how this came about and what the consequences are.
The Kavala case
Osman Kavala was arrested at Istanbul Airport on October 18, 2017. The accusation: He financed the Gezi Park protests of 2013, which were directed against Erdogan, and wanted to destroy the constitutional order.
In February 2020, after a brief release, he was arrested again for allegedly involved in the 2016 coup attempt. These allegations were dropped, but he has been held for “political and military” espionage ever since.
The well-known entrepreneur Kavala founded several publishing houses and in 2002 the organization Anadolu Kültür, which promotes art and culture.
The pressure of the EU
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in December 2019 that Turkey had violated the Human Rights Convention in the proceedings against Kavala and that the prisoner must be released immediately.
Because Turkey did not recognize the verdict, the ambassadors from Germany, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the USA put pressure on October 18 and jointly demanded a “swift and fair” decision in the case Kavala.
Erdogan’s reaction
The Turkish president reacted angrily. He declared the ten ambassadors “undesirable people”. He withdrew his initial threat to deport her on Monday evening.
The consequences
Erdogan cuts his own flesh because the scandal accelerates the decline in the Turkish currency. After the sacking of three central bankers, the lowering of the key interest rate despite high inflation and now due to the diplomatic dispute, the lira has hit a record low. Since the beginning of the year it has lost a quarter of its value against the euro.
The expulsion of the ten ambassadors would have been a drastic step. It would have put even more strain on NATO partner Turkey’s relations with the EU and the USA – and that one week before the G20 summit in Rome.
There Erdogan is actually hoping to meet US President Joe Biden (78). The US has imposed sanctions on Turkey for buying the Russian S-400 missile defense system.
The assessment
Turkey expert Christoph Ramm from the University of Bern: “The announcement that the ten ambassadors will be expelled is a fairly transparent maneuver to distract attention from the economic crisis in Turkey and the increasingly poor record of Erdogan’s presidential government.” As with all right-wing populists, Erdogan is only left with nationalism in crisis situations in order to bring the population together behind him.
But Erdogan’s time could definitely be over in the upcoming elections, which are due to take place by June 2023. Ramm: “If the next elections are reasonably fair and the Turkish opposition manages to put up a strong common presidential candidate, there is a very good chance that the AKP will lose power.”