Turkey’s harsh criticism of the Swedish ambassador in Ankara

The embassies of Sweden and nine other countries issued a joint statement regarding Turkish businessman and activist Osman Kavala.

Kavala has been detained since 2017 and is accused of, among other things, organizing protests in 2013 against the reconstruction of Istanbul’s Gezi Park. He was released in February 2020, only to be arrested again a few hours later – this time on suspicion of involvement in the 2016 coup attempt.

Today, four years since then The continued detention of Osman Kavala began. “The continued delays in his trial, including the merging of several different indictments and the addition of new ones following his earlier release, cast a shadow over the respect for democracy, rule of law and transparency in the Turkish judiciary,” the statement said. Statement from the embassies of Denmark, France, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany and the United States.

The statement called for Kavala’s immediate release.

The European Court of Justice (ECHR) has described the case against Kavala as a way for Turkey to silence him and already in 2019 requested his release.

Embassies statement is annoying Turkey leadership. House Speaker, Mustafa Sentop, wrote on Twitter that ambassadors “have no right to comment on ongoing issues” and that they “clearly crossed the border”.

Diplomats are obligated to respect the judiciary in the country in which they serve. According to our constitution, no ambassador can tell our courts what to do or not do. What casts a shadow over the rule of law is the assumption that they can, Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul, according to the Daily Sabah.