A thousand words for Osman Kavala: Conscience and conscientious

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The friends and loved ones of arrested businessperson and rights defender Osman Kavala have described him with one word as part of a campaign that was launched to mark his 1,000th day behind bars today (July 27).

CLICK - 'My arrest is a fantastic fiction'

Asked about the one word that they would use to describe Osman Kavala, the ones who participated in the campaign have given the following most frequent answers: "Conscience and conscientious", "modest and modesty", "good and goodness" and "human."

CLICK - One word for Osman Kavala

While the call for the campaign was made in Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Greek, Arabic and English, the participants could answer in whatever language they wanted. The survey ended on July 23 and the answers have been translated into five languages. You can click here to see all words written for Osman Kavala and how frequently they were used.

The most frequent ones answers as follows:

"Conscience and conscientious" (48), "modest and modesty" (44), "good and goodness" (30), "human" (28), "kindness" (19), "hope" (17), "altruist" (14), "solidarity" (13), "refinement" (11) and "freedom" (11)

Writer Ümit: Wronged contemporary Don Quixote

Some prominent figures have also given the following answers:

Writer Ahmet Ümit "Wronged contemporary Don Quixote", performing artist Leman S. Darıcıoğlu "Opening space", poet Peter Balakian "Massive-Humanity", human rights defender Zafer Kıraç "Attentive, skilled", Sare Çankaya "Why doesn't it fly İnci? It will, one day...", historian Elazar Barkan "Leadership Empathy", academic Ayşe Gül Altınay "Openness of heart, kindness, respect", academic and politician Baskın Oran "He has become a saint", poet M. Yaşar Yılmaz "He takes on any task, big or small" and Aydın Hekimoğlu "Bedrettin from Kavala."

While 11 people have used the word "blue" to describe Osman Kavala, five people have used "Anatolia." Greeting Kavala by naming the protagonist in his new book as Yusuf Kavala, Murat Uyurkulak has described him with the adjective "international." While journalist Melis Alphan has said "light" for him, Stella Ovadia has used the word "Luzio" or "beaming."

Özgür Mumcu has also used "altruist" to describe him. Saying "Commodore 64", Serdar Aksoy has referred to the personal computer that Turkey came to know for the first time thanks to Kavala. (HA/SD)