Dissident Spotlight: Osman Kavala
Mehmet Osman Kavala was imprisoned in a sham trial brought by Türkiye's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

For decades, Osam Kavala spent millions of dollars creating and supporting different organizations in Türkiye. The organizations he created supported the arts, artistic expression, and most importantly, free expression in an increasingly repressive country.
In 2017, Kavala was arrested as part of a larger crackdown on dissidents. Prime Minister, Recep Erdoğan, accused Kavala of conspiring with American Democratic donor, George Soros, to overthrow the government.
If the lawsuit sounds far-fetched, it’s because it’s meritless. Kavala founded Türkiye’s Open Society Foundations, which provides grants to civil society organizations around the world. George Soros started the organization, which was all the pretext Erdoğan needed for his broader attack on liberalism in his country.
In 2022, Kavala received a life sentence without parole in a sham trial. He remains imprisoned to this day.
Supporting the Arts and Democratic Expression
The arts are fundamental to free expression. Artists may create with a message in mind or leave their work to speak for itself. The tolerance of artists is the same tolerance required to protect dissenting voices.
Kavala’s support wasn’t limited to artists. His support is wide-ranging and includes:
Co-founding publishing house İletişim Yayınları in 1983
Co-founding the Science, Art, Culture Services Society in 1984
Joining the board of the Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audio-visual Culture, founded in 1991
Contributor to the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe in 1998
Founding and chairing Anadolu Kültür in 2002
Kavala’s support empowered writers, thinkers, artists, activists, and many working to strengthen democracy in Türkiye. Among the beneficiaries of Anadolu Kültür were Kurdish artists.
The Kurds are the largest ethnic group without their own state and have faced discrimination in the countries they’re minorities in and violent attacks from governments determined to crush Kurdish independence movements.
Anadolu Kültür was founded after Turkish bombardments of Kurdish areas in the 1990s and funded another organization for Kurdish artists.
Kavala’s long-standing support for marginalized groups and democratic movements would eventually land him in Erdoğan’s sights.
An Excuse for a Crackdown
In 2013, thousands of Turks gathered in Gezi Park to protest the park turning into a shopping center.
Amid the anti-shopping center groups, other protest groups began to make the park their center of work. They included pro-democracy protestors who organized against Erdoğan’s increasingly authoritarian rule. His Justice and Development Party (AKP) had been in power since 2002, and Erdoğan had been prime minister since 2003.
Kavala’s role in the protests was small, as he revealed in a 2023 Deutsche Welle interview from prison:
“During the protests, I brought a loudspeaker and a plastic table to the park. These, in addition to some cookies, constitute the evidence, the only evidence, provided in the indictment in support of the allegation that I had funded the protests.”
Erdoğan needed the appearance of a court case to sell Kavala’s conviction. In reality, Kavala was a target because of his partnership with George Soros, who funds pro-democracy organizations globally. In 2022, Erdoğan denounced Kavala as a “Soros man.” Soros’ support for democratic movements is a threat to politicians like Erdoğan, so authoritarians across the world have made Soros into a bogeyman.
Why Kavala Kept Fighting Back
Authoritarians don’t need evidence for trials. They only need a pretext that allows supporters to claim authoritarians behave democratically. In his Deutsche Welle interview, Kavala explained why he took the risk of supporting so many organizations that were at odds with Erdoğan’s government:
“Earning money is fine. But I think that to live in a society where people of different faiths and ethnicities feel as equal citizens, and where poor and rich enjoy similar public services, is a great privilege, and believing that your work contributes to the advent of such a society also gives a feeling of enrichment, despite some risks it entails.”
Kavala is a clear example of the responsibilities that freedom demands of those who enjoy its privilege.