Turkey Defies Rule of Law With Life Sentence for Rights Activist

Turkey’s highest appeals court last week upheld a life-long prison sentence for human rights activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala. The court’s decision violates several binding rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which has jurisdiction over Turkey and previously ordered Kavala’s release.

Kavala is among a number of high-profile defendants in the Gezi Park trials, many of whom were convicted on spurious charges of attempting to overthrow the Turkish government. In 2013, Istanbul’s Gezi Park became the focal point of protests that erupted throughout Turkey, opposing then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian and corrupt practices. The authorities’ violent efforts to break up the protests mainly confirmed how autocratic Erdogan had become.

The government has kept Kavala behind bars since 2017, but it was only in 2022 that a lower court sentenced him and several public intellectuals to prison for being the leaders of a “terrorist” plot to forcibly remove Erdogan from power. Millions of Turkish citizens participated in the protest and no evidence of a terrorist plot was ever presented in court. The appeals court ruling last week upheld Kavala’s conviction and life sentence, along with 18-year sentences for some co-defendants, while ordering the acquittal of three individuals. The appeal court’s final judgment ignores the binding decision of the ECHR, which previously ordered Turkey to acquit Kavala on the grounds that that his conviction was not based on facts.

In 2021, the Council of Europe (CoE) — the European Union’s highest human rights body — began proceedings against Ankara for keeping Kavala in prison since 2017 without convicting him of a crime and in defiance of an ECHR ruling in 2019 that demanded his immediate release. Following Kavala’s conviction in July 2022, the ECHR, in Kavala vs. Turkey,demanded his immediate release under Article 46(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights, which obliges member states of the CoE to comply with ECHR rulings. If Ankara refuses to comply with and implement the demands of the ECHR, it could result in Turkey losing its voting privileges in the CoE, eventually leading all the way to suspension from the body. More importantly, Ankara’s ongoing defiance of repeated ECHR rulings underscores that Turkey does not respect the rule of law. This is reflected in a recent World Justice Project index, which ranked Turkey 116th out of 140 countries, in between Russia and Iran.

In an interview last month with PBS, Erdogan remained defiant, remarking, “the American judiciary is a full-fledged judiciary. So is the judiciary of Turkey. And you have to respect that.” Clearly, there is a need for foreign pressure. The European Union should demand Ankara’s immediate compliance with ECHR rulings, and the Biden administration, which claims to prioritize human rights should do the same. The Kavala case is only one high-profile example of the vast deterioration of human rights in Turkey under Erdogan. Washington should make clear that Erdogan will not receive the cooperation he wants if he continues to rule as an autocrat. For example, Ankara seeks to procure numerous military systems from the United States, notably including new F-16 fighter jets. The Biden administration is in a strong position to seek resolution of the Kavala case and other measures to bolster the rule of law as a precondition before pushing forward with defense sales. This would complement the position of the U.S. Congress, in particular, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), which has long blocked weapons sales to Turkey, citing Ankara’s poor track record in upholding human rights.

Sinan Ciddi is a non-resident senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he contributes to FDD’s Turkey Program and Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP). For more analysis from Sinan, the Turkey Program, and CMPP, please subscribe HERE. Follow Sinan on X @SinanCiddi. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_CMPP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.