FREE Turkish human rights activist and arts patron OSMAN KAVALA. Today 23 August 2025, Osman Kavala has been for 2853 days BEHIND BARS ~ FREE Osman Kavala. Read more here.
In 2007 DAI's project Here As The Centre Of The World brought a group of artists and art students to Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey were they teamed up with local artists. We were generously hosted by the the Diyarbakır Arts Center, thanks to the support of Osman Kavala and his charitable, nonprofit arts and culture foundation Anadolu Kültür.
2013: Beginning of the Gezi Park Protests
2017: Osman Kavala taken under custody.
2020: Turkish courts staged the trial of Osman Kavala several times, always returning him to prison despite a variety of outcomes. Simon(e) van Saarloos (DAI, 2020) attended once, and tells us what it’s like when the state scripts our destinies: https://www.artseverywhere.ca/gezi-park/
2022: Despite the fact that Osman Kavala was acquitted before and the European Court of Human Rights decided that there was a violation, it was decided by a majority of votes that Kavala sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment for the crime of Attempting to Overthrow the Government of Turkey or to Prevent the Government of Turkey from Performing its Duty, and to be arrested for this crime, pursuant to the Article 312 of the TPC.
About: OSMAN KAVALA