Istanbul - A

severe political and diplomatic crisis looms on the horizon after a group of Western ambassadors intervened in the case of the arrest of Osman Kavala by the Turkish authorities and presented to the court in Istanbul.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that he had instructed the foreign minister to declare 10 ambassadors to Ankara persona non grata as soon as possible after they issued a statement condemning Kavala's arrest and calling for his release.

The Turkish president's statements came in a speech during the inauguration of a series of service projects in the northwestern Turkish state of Eskişehir, according to Anatolia.

The ten ambassadors to whom Turkish President Erdogan referred are the ambassadors of the United States of America, Germany, Denmark and Finland, as well as France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Norway and New Zealand, due to a statement on the case of Turkish businessman Osman Kavala.

The embassies of the mentioned countries in Ankara had published a statement on social media, in which they said that the ongoing case against Kavala casts a shadow over democracy and the rule of law in Turkey, calling for his release.

And the Council of Europe for Human Rights, which Turkey joined in 1950, warned last Saturday that it could initiate proceedings against Ankara if Kavala was not released by the end of the month.

But expectations do not indicate the possibility of Kavala leaving his cell in Istanbul's Silivri prison anytime soon, in the face of a series of successive charges, including espionage and attempts to conspire against the state.

Who is Osman Kavala, the businessman who was known for his anti-government positions and for providing support to a number of critical associations and organizations, especially in the areas of freedoms.

Birth and upbringing

October 2, 1957: He was born in the French capital, Paris, to a Turkish Muslim family from the town of Kavala in Greece, and moved to Turkey under the population exchange agreement signed in Lausanne, Switzerland, between the Ottoman Empire and Greece in January 1923.

His father is Mehmet (Muhammad) Kavala, the founder of the Kavala Group of Companies, who died in 1982 and his mother is Najla Kavala. He married the academic lecturer at the Faculty of Economics at Bogazici University Aisha Bogra and she is the daughter of the Turkish novelist Tarik Bogra.

He studied secondary school at Robert Academy in Istanbul, an American school established in 1863 for education according to the American system in the Ottoman Empire.

1975: He graduated from Robert Academy, then studied business administration at the Middle East Technical University (Orta Dogo Technic University) in the capital, Ankara, and then obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics from the British University of Manchester, before joining the Modern College of Social Studies in New York, USA to complete a study He completed his PhD on returning to his country after the sudden death of his father in 1982.

The detainee, Osman Kavala, was accused by the Turkish authorities of espionage (French)

Arrest and trial

November 1, 2017: Kavala has been in Silivri Prison in Istanbul since his arrest under Articles 309 and 312 of the Republic of Turkey Law on charges related to his connection to the Gezi Park events in Taksim in 2013 and the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

October 11, 2019: Kavala was acquitted of the charge of participating in the Gezi Park events by the Turkish Prosecutor General and remained in detention pending the coup case.

February 18, 2020: He was released, to be re-arrested the next day, pending other cases.

March 9, 2020: He was charged with violating Article 328 of the Turkish Republic Law after he was accused of "obtaining information that by its nature should remain confidential for the purpose of political or military espionage in relation to state security or domestic or foreign political benefits."

February 11, 2021: Kavala's case resurfaced with the US administration's rejection of the cases brought against him in the Turkish judiciary and its call on Ankara to release him without conditions, before the case developed into a crisis with 10 Western ambassadors announcing a joint statement condemning his continued detention and calling for his release. .

Public work

He was active in the establishment of publishing houses and contributed to the establishment of two of them in 1983 and 1985, and obtained membership in other publishing houses founding bodies.

2002: He established the Anadolu Foundation for Culture, a non-profit organization. He also contributed to the founding and membership of the boards of directors of a number of non-governmental organizations that were active in the fields of environment, culture, heritage and freedoms, as well as economics and social activism, which received great Western support.