Following the final verdict at the Osman Kavala trial condemning the defendant to a life in prison, the Chairman of the Executive Board at the Gerda Henkel Foundation, Dr. Michael Hanssler, vigorously criticized the conviction, commenting: “Osman Kavala has been closely linked to the Gerda Henkel Foundation for many years now because of the funding activities he has been conducting. Mr. Kavala’s sentence, which was announced yesterday, clearly contravenes basic values to be expected in a country that recognizes the rule of law, the kind of laws to which Turkey has professed to adhere, as do other countries.” Hanssler pointed out that the European Court of Human Rights has issued a binding obligation to Turkey to release Kavala without delay. “The Gerda Henkel Foundation subscribes to this demand and hopes that this scandalous verdict will be rescinded.”  

Turkish patron of the arts and human rights activists Osman Kavala was incarcerated in 2017. Yesterday (25 April, 2022) a court in Istanbul condemned him to life imprisonment under aggravated conditions. The allegation that he was attempting to overthrow the government was rejected in Germany and elsewhere as completely untenable.

In 2002, Osman Kavala established the organization Anadolu Kültür. The Gerda Henkel Foundation has been sponsoring the initiative “Diyarbakır’s Memory: Archive and Portal” since 2018. The initiative focuses on Diyarbakır with its long history stretching back right into early Antiquity. The latter southeast Anatolian city boasts a rich material and immaterial cultural heritage, a heritage which is however increasingly under threat of disappearance because of armed conflicts, urban planning, and social factors. The project “Diyarbakır’s Memory: Archive and Portal” has the objective of preserving the memory of this cultural heritage. Thanks to Anadolu Kültür and the Diyarbakır Association for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Assets, a digital archive (DİYARBAKIR'S MEMORY (diyarbakirhafizasi.org)) is in the process of coming into existence.

At its most recent meeting (spring 2022) and in a further fundamental decision, the Foundation’s committees approved a second initiative to be headed up by the Diyarbakır Association for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Assets. This project is to focus on the manuscripts in the libraries of one Syriac and one Chaldean church in Diyarbakır respectively. As is the case throughout Turkey, in Diyarbakır both Syriac and Chaldean communities are struggling with dwindling parishioner numbers. They are hardly in a position to preserve and maintain their cultural assets without outside assistance. The results are being collected in the digital archive on Diyarbakır which is being produced by Anadolu Kültür.