Freedom for Osman say his classmates

Detained businessman Osman Kavala’s classmates from Robert College assembled in front of Silivri Prison yesterday to show solidarity for Kavala. The Robert College graduates of 1975, with Hürriyet newspaper columnist Sedat Ergin and writer Yıldırım Türker numbering among them, unfurled a placard reading “Freedom for Osman Kavala” in front of Silivri Prison. Kavala’s classmates, saying that it would never have entered their minds that they would be congregating in front of a prison 42 years after having graduated, spoke to our newspaper about Kavala. 

Füsun Kocaman, noting that Kavala engaged in social responsibility projects while perched on high school benches, said, “In those years, with us having no awareness of social responsibility and striving to get higher marks, Osman would get involved in social responsibility projects. We couldn’t make sense of Osman in those days. But, in the years to come, when we also acquired such consciousness, we always held him in esteem. Our paths crossed from time to time on certain projects. I kept track of him admiringly. Just now, though, I feel great sadness at the position he finds himself in.” Kocaman, pointing out that Kavala is a humanist person, commented, “Osman is not one to become entirely engrossed in any particular religion or any particular view. His basic goal is people. To be of use to people.” 

Yıldırım Türker, saying that Osman Kavala forever fought for conscience, democracy, honour and a better Turkey, stressed that the endeavour to tie Kavala in with “FETO” was comical. Türker said, “Osman is one of the people who saw what FETO was from the very outset at a time when FETO and the government were in one another’s laps.” 

Naci Üstün, in turn, described Osman Kavala as being a most interesting classmate: “I have known Osman ever since the end of primary school. We have been friends since middle and high school until now. As I said, Osman was always interesting. He has never lost this interesting side to him. As to the attempt to connect Osman with FETO, this is more than comical. Nobody will believe this.” 

He has spent his life combatting coupists 

Theatre actress and director Nihal Geyran Koldaş read the statement they had jointly prepared. Nihal Geyran Koldaş, stating that they had assembled to object to Osman Kavala having been deprived of his liberty, said, “We believe that a massive injustice has been done to Osman Kavala. As his friends who know him well, we reject allegations of the kind that Osman was involved in a coup attempt or had relations with a criminal organisation taking the form of a religious brotherhood. However much it defies reason and the truth to assert that the world is flat and not round, it is equally untruthful to assert that Osman was a coupist. As a genuine democrat, he has spent his life combatting the coupist mentality.” Koldaş, indicating that they wished to display solidarity with Kavala, show their affection for him and let everyone know that Kavala is not alone, commented, “We are here to show that the prison’s barbed wire and iron bars, the bolts locking the cell doors and the high concrete walls can in no way hold him apart from us.” 

Nihal Geyran Koldaş, noting that an objection on an international scale had risen up in opposition to Kavala’s detention, stated, “A powerful and lively wave of reaction has risen up on all sides spreading from the United Nations to the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, from parliaments to leading human rights and civil society organisations in the global arena, and from the world’s respected press outlets to universities. This wave spreads, growing a little broader each day.” Koldaş, stating that Kavala was one who ran to everyone’s aid, stressed that Kavala believed in the power of civil society to carry democracy and civil society forward in Turkey and encouraged civil society initiatives and devoted all of the resources at his disposal to this end. 

Justice and freedom for the others, too 

Koldaş said the following, abridged: “Osman Kavala believed in the power of culture and that culture and the arts could open all doors. He endeavoured with all his might to mobilise cultural contacts to enable the deep-rooted problems we face to be surmounted. When, one day, the history of the civil society tradition is written in Turkey, Osman Kavala will grace the page of honour as one of the most important names of this tradition. The consequences of detaining Osman are not restricted purely to the act of placing a person in a cell. Unfortunately, all the values and ideals that he represented and symbolised in the person of Osman Kavala have been thrown behind iron bars. While having come here, we also salute not just Osman, but all the thought criminals who in common with him have suffered injustice and are being wrongfully held in this prison, and we seek justice and freedom for them, too.” 

Nihal Geyran Koldaş, proclaiming that, “Our presence here today testifies that we have not succumbed to hopelessness, nor will we,” said, “We know and sense that Osman has not in any way lost his hope behind iron bars and is encouraging us in this direction from there.”

Sınıf arkadaşlarından destek... Osman için özgürlük istiyoruz