“Lesson in Righteousness”
Erdogan brushes off criticism of Kavala verdict
4/28/2022 4:34 am
The sentence of the publisher Osman Kavala to life imprisonment is not only causing horror in Turkey, but also internationally there has been harsh criticism. President Erdogan doesn’t want to know anything about it and whispers about “certain circles” who are concerned about the verdict.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sharply rejected international criticism of the conviction of cultural promoter Osman Kavala. The Turkish judiciary made the final decision regarding a person, which “certain circles” bothered about, Erdogan said on Wednesday evening without naming Kavala. “No offense, law and order exist in this country,” he said.
Erdogan once again referred to Kavala as a “Turkish Soros”. In the past, President Kavala had already accused Kavala of having financed the Gezi protests with the help of US investor and philanthropist Georg Soros.
Erdogan sees the anti-government demonstrations that started in Istanbul’s Gezi Park in 2013 as a foreign conspiracy. The trigger for the largely peaceful protests was a construction project in the center of Istanbul. The action spread to nationwide demonstrations against the authoritarian policies of then Prime Minister Erdogan. He brutally suppressed the protests. With the decision on the “Gezi actions”, the Turkish judiciary also gave those with “similar intentions” a lesson in law and justice, Erdogan said.
Kavala was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Istanbul court on Monday in connection with the Gezi protests. Seven other people, including well-known architect Mücella Yapici and lawyer Can Atalay, received 18 years for aiding and abetting. The verdict had provoked sharp international criticism. Chancellor Olaf Scholz described it on Wednesday as a “devastating signal for Turkish civil society”.