Barkey: I was having dinner with a well-known Turkish journalist that night, not Kavala
American academic and Middle East expert Henri Barkey announced that he was having dinner with a well known Turkish journalist the night Turkish prosecutors accused him and Osman Kavala to have dinner and plan a conspiracy against Turkey.
In 2017 a detention warrant was issued for Barkey on suspicion of being behind the Gezi protests, the corruption operations of Dec. 17-25 in 2013 and the coup attempt in Turkey in 2016.
One “evidence” against Osman Kavala was that he had dinner with Henri Barkey when he was sentenced to life in prison for “attempting to overthrow the Turkish government by force” in April.
The dinner issue resurfaced when the US representative of CHP Yurter Ozcan revived the matter on Twitter: Both Kavala and Barkey said they did not have dinner that night. Then with whom they were having dinner? No one questioned this. Not even the security cameras checked.
Bir insanla yemek yemek suç sayılır mı? Türkiye’de ise, evet.
— Yurter Özcan (@YurterOzcan) July 27, 2022
Osman Kavala 5 senedir hapiste. Savcılık’ın yazdığı iddianamede, hakkındaki iddialardan birisi 18 Temmuz 2016’da Karaköy’de Henri Barkey ile yemek yemek.
Ancak her iki tarafta beraber yemek yemediklerini belirtti.
“Not even did the person who was having dinner with Barkey show up and say: That was me, Kavala and Barkey do not know each other. The habit of not taking responsibility has reached a sickening level in Turkey,” Ozcan said.
Soon after this tweet, Henri Barkey talked to Gercek Gundem and confirmed Ozcan’s statement.
“I was having dinner with a well-known Turkish journalist that night, but considering the situation in Turkey, I think it is not right to explain who this person is. …as I refuse to be a part of unfair and fabricated ploys; Of course he can [show up] if he wants,” Barkey said and added that when he came to the restaurant that night, Kavala was having dinner with a few people from Europe, and he talked to them for a few minutes without even joining their table.
“It is strongly interesting that even though the indictment mentions the names of Sylvia and Marwa - the people who accompanied me in the conference and were at another table in the same restaurant - were mentioned in the indictment… but fails to do so for the person I actually ate with,” Barkey said.
