175 Global News Post 2: Osman Kavala Case

News Source: Turkey will not respect council of Europe’s kavala decision, erdoğan says. Yerepouni Daily News. Feb 04 2022. Available from: http://proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/turkey-will-not-respect-council-europe-s-kavala/docview/2625192528/se-2?accountid=9783.

Turkish government has long taken a control over media and domestic news, and this political response could be seen as another addition to its history of ruling over freedom of expression. The Council of Europe has shown some concerns with Turkey’s decisions for the civil rights, and earlier this month(February 2022), the Committee of Ministers “voted to refer Turkey to the European Court of Human Rights as the next step in disciplinary procedures” for the case of continued imprisonment of Osman Kavala. Kavala is a philanthropist and civil society activist in Turkey, who has been imprisoned for more than four years over the responsibilities for protests and a coup attempt as well as espionage and plotting to overthrow the government. However, Kavala has not been officially convicted of these charges through court and yet the government has extended his detention through today, which has been called upon as failing to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights. To this, Turkish President Erdogan claims that the Turkish domestic courts should be respected, showing no signs of compliance with the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe. It seems that Erdogan has remained assertive about this case, even threatening to declare the ambassadors from Western countries to be persona non grata—which can remove the diplomatic status and the recognition of envoys—back in October, 2021. Critics of Erdogan say that since Kavala is seen as responsible for a protest that aimed at toppling him and his government, Erdogan wants to show his power over the issue. However, the Council of Europe and other Western countries see this as violating the freedom of expression and democracy, calling for the release of Kavala.

This news article was published from Yerepouni Daily News based in Beirut, Lebanon which is outside of Turkey, therefore focuses more on the details about the stance taken by the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights. The sources from inside Turkey is limited, and articles regarding this case were only primarily published from Anadolu Agency, which is controlled by right-wing party and biased towards pro-government. In an article from Anadolu Agency included justifications for the continued imprisonment of Kavala, and claimed that the approach taken by the Council of Europe is “malicious, intentional and inconsistent,” which was not mentioned in the article from Yerepouni Daily News. It can be said that this article takes a stance that is against Turkish government, and therefore is intentionally missing details that go against the Council of Europe. That being said, since media and Turkey is largely controlled by the government and biased, the question about the freedom of expression within the nation will continue to be a topic of discussion.