ISTANBUL — Human rights defenders on Monday called the continued detention of Osman Kavala, a philanthropist who promoted reconciliation with Armenians and Kurds in Turkey, a “political decision” that seeks to instill fear among Turkey's civil society.
On Tuesday, Kavala, who turns 62 this week, will have spent 700 days in prison on charges he organized mass protests to save an Istanbul park in 2013 in a secret effort to topple the government. He and 15 others return to court next week and, if convicted, face life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in a case decried by the European Union as undermining human rights.