Սեպտեմբերի 15-ին թուրք նշանավոր հասարակական գործիչ Օսման Քավալան արժանացել է Հրանտ Դինքի անվան միջազգային մրցանակին՝ մարդու իրավունքների, արվեստի ու մշակույթի ոլորտներում իր երկարամյա ներդրման համար:
Օսման Քավալան Թուրքիայում համարվում է Հայոց ցեղասպանության ճանաչման համար պայքարի առաջամարտիկներից մեկը: Նա ձերբակալվել է Թուրքիայում 2017թ. հոկտեմբերի 18-ին և արդեն ավելի քան 1050 օր անցկացնում է բանտում: Իշխանությունները մինչև օրս չեն ներկայացրել որևէ ապացույց նրա հանցագործություն կատարելու վերաբերյալ:
OSMAN KAVALA was born in Paris in 1957. He received his bachelor’s degree in Business from Middle East Technical University, and his master’s in Economics from Manchester University. While he was working on his doctorate in the United States, his father died, and he returned to Turkey. In 1983, he and his friends founded İletişim Publishing in order to support the return to democracy and civilian rule after the September 12 coup through popular publishing.
The Marmara Earthquake was a turning point in his life; he supported civic networks created in the region in the wake of the earthquake. In the period that followed, he played an important role in the civil society activities that were newly developing in the country, taking part in the creation of several civil society organizations and their work.
In 2002, together with people from the business circles and civil society, he founded Anadolu Kültür in an effort to spread and scale up culture and arts events and to advocate cultural diversity and rights. He participated in projects to support local initiatives and ran projects to strengthen ties between organizations working locally and the culture-arts operators as well as civil society organizations in Europe.
In the 1990s, to help bind the wounds left by the fighting in Turkey’s eastern and southeastern provinces and build a culture of dialogue and peace through arts, he played a pioneering role in Anadolu Kültür’s first project, the establishment of the Diyarbakır Art Center. The Kars Arts Center, also with Anadolu Kültür’s support became a cultural meeting space not only for Turkey, but for Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan as well.
During negotiations for Turkey’s membership in the European Union, he concentrated on projects to establish ties between European and Anatolian cities, supporting artistic work by Anatolian youth and long-term working relationships between leading figures in the world of culture. DEPO, founded in a former Ottoman tobacco depot in 2008, is an independent art space that hosts the work of many artists with an emphasis on pluralism.
After the 2011 Van Earthquake, he held photography workshops. He also created projects and published books for Yazidi and Syrian refugee children living under harsh conditions. He has brought together hundreds of artists as well as their works of art in an effort to contribute to the opening of the sealed border between Turkey and Armenia, which have had no diplomatic relationship since 1993. He has taken part in projects to protect, document and restore the cultural heritage of Anatolia.
He has devoted his life to the building of a pluralistic, democratic society. He has advocated dialogue and multiculturalism. He has shown that civil society initiatives, through culture and arts, can strengthen relationships between peoples. He was arrested on November 1st, 2017. As of 15 September 2020 he is still in the Istanbul Silivri High-Security Prison and continues to be productive even in his cell and brings people together.
