The Turkish Foreign Ministry today (Tuesday) held no less than ten reprimand calls to foreign ambassadors, following criticism leveled against Ankara yesterday as part of the fourth anniversary of the arrest at Istanbul airport of businessman and philanthropist Osman Kabala, who helped protest the Gazi Park protest in 2013 against Erdogan.
These are the ambassadors of the United States, Canada, France, Finland, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden who have issued an unprecedented joint statement calling for the release of the political prisoner.
"We demand a clear and immediate solution to the legal process against Kabala," the ambassadors demanded.
"The delays in the legal process that concern it raise questions about respect for democracy, the rule of law and the transparency of the Turkish legal system."
"We are united in our demand for the immediate release of Kabala. The decision regarding him must respect Turkey's international obligations and Turkey's own laws."
Osman Kabala.
Arrested businessman, Photo: AFP
Ankara, on the other hand, said angrily that "this is an attempt to interfere with Turkey's jurisdiction and the politicization of legal proceedings." The Turkish Foreign Ministry also said that "the ambassadors' announcement is unacceptable and contrary to the rule of law, democracy and the freedom of the judiciary, issues that the ambassadors claim to protect." During the reprimand to the ambassadors, Foreign Ministry officials in Ankara told them: "Turkey is a democratic and constitutional country that respects human rights. Our justice system will not be affected by such statements."
"Erdogan links Kabala as the number one person responsible for the Gazi Park protest," Dr. Chai Eitan Cohen Inrojek, a modern Turkish researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, told Israel Today.
The Turkish president sees the Gazi Park protest as an attempted civil coup. Kabala was eventually seen by Erdogan as the main sponsor of the Gazi protest. The release of the philanthropist. "
Demonstrators in a wave of protests in Gazi Park in Istanbul, 2013 (archive), Photo: AFP
He said, "Now all the countries have joined hands in applying unprecedented pressure against Turkey in demanding the release of political prisoner Osman Kabala. The wall illustrates the depth of the rift between Turkey and Western countries. "