Henri J. Barkey
Nine years after the Gezi Park protests erupted in Istanbul and quickly spread to many other parts of Turkey, the “culprits” behind the demonstrations were sentenced in April. Civil society leader and philanthropist Osman Kavala was convicted of having attempted to overthrow the government and sentenced to life imprisonment; seven other co-defendants received 18 years.
Like many other prosecutions in Turkey these days, the Gezi case was based not on evidence, but pure conjecture. Kavala has long been a target of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. He had already been imprisoned for four years based on spurious accusations that he was involved in the failed 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan. Erdogan’s antipathy for Kavala appears to be personal, perhaps dating back to 2013, when Kavala expressed concern that Erdogan’s since-successful project to establish a presidential system in Turkey would result in a “totalitarian” regime.
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