At the beginning of her visit to Turkey, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock demanded that the imprisoned cultural promoter Osman Kavala be released.
She sees it as her duty to "respect and defend the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, without exception and at all times," said the Green politician on Friday at a joint press conference with her Turkish colleague Mevlut Cavusoglu in Istanbul "For me, this also includes the release of Osman Kavala ordered by the European Court of Human Rights," said Baerbock.
She is aware "that in these times it is difficult to talk about topics where we might both flinch at a press conference". But these are precisely the times when there is a willingness to "listen to each other,
Kavala was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Istanbul in April on charges of attempting to overthrow the Turkish government.
The verdict was sharply criticized internationally, and the Turkish government had rejected the criticism as interference in Turkey's internal affairs.
Kavala has been imprisoned in Silivri high-security prison near Istanbul for more than four years.
The businessman was originally arrested in 2017 on charges of financing and organizing the 2013 Gezi protests in Istanbul against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.
In February 2020, a court acquitted him of this charge.
Kavala was released from prison at the time, but arrested again a few hours later - then in connection with the attempted coup against Erdogan in 2016 and because of allegations of espionage.
Kavala denies all allegations.