A nationalist-leaning lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is planning to visit jailed businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala, arguing that the “unlawfulness” associated with the Kavala case is one of the main causes of the economic crisis in Turkey, the Gazete Duvar news website reported on Tuesday.
Kavala, 66, faced charges that have ranged from espionage and financing anti-government protests in 2013 to taking part in a failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2016.
He was arrested in November 2017 and sentenced to life in prison in 2022 for allegedly trying to topple Erdoğan’s government with the Gezi Park protests, which erupted in the summer of 2013 in İstanbul against government plans to destroy a park in central İstanbul.
Tuğrul Türkeş, an economist and head of the Turkish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, has been one of the few pro-government figures who criticize the ongoing imprisonment of Kavala despite a European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling, calling on the judiciary to act in line with the law.
A judgment in Kavala’s case in December 2019 by the ECtHR found his detention to be arbitrary, politically motivated and in pursuance of an “ulterior motive,” that of silencing him as a human rights defender. Turkey has not abided by the Strasbourg-based court’s decision.
The non-implementation of the 2019 ruling prompted the CoE Committee of Ministers to launch an infringement procedure against Turkey in February 2022. Possible sanctions include European countries initiating investigations into people involved in Kavala’s imprisonment and Turkey losing its voting rights at PACE.
Türkeş argues that the unlawful practices of the Turkish judiciary, manifest in the Kavala case, should be eliminated in order to attract investors from the West, get money flowing into the country and help solve its financial problems.
“We are experiencing difficulties in terms of economic recovery because we are not acting in line with the law. The issue here is not Kavala, etc. … If you fix the law, the economy will also be fixed. We cannot provide a significant flow of funds to Turkey from the West. We cannot attract investors,” the MP said.
Over the past several years Turkey has been suffering from a deteriorating economy, with high inflation and unemployment as well as a poor human rights record. Erdoğan is criticized for mishandling the economy, emptying the state’s coffers and establishing one-man rule in the country where dissent is suppressed and opponents are jailed on politically motivated charges.
The lira, which lost more than half its value against the dollar in 2021 alone and tumbled 29 percent in 2022 and 26 percent in 2023, has shed another 11.5 percent in the first six months of 2024. It has been the worst performer in emerging markets for several years running due largely to economic and monetary policy concerns under the government of Erdoğan.
Türkeş, who attributes his way of thinking about the rule of law-economy relationship to the idea of “nationalism” that he defines as taking action for the future and benefit of the country, also told Gazete Duvar that he asked Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç for permission to visit Kavala in prison at an appropriate time.
“I will have seen Osman Kavala for the first time on that visit. This is true nationalism. This is the nationalism I was taught,” he added.
Tuğrul Türkeş is the eldest son of Alparslan Türkeş, the founder of Erdoğan’s far-right ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). A member of parliament since 2007, Türkeş joined the AKP after his expulsion from the MHP in 2015.