LI Prize for Freedom

Grußworte: Professor Dr. Karl-Heinz Paqué, Präsident von Liberal International

Dear Mrs. Ayşe Buğra,

dear Maren,

dear Astrid,

dear Dr. Martens,

ladies and gentlemen,

It is a privilege to welcome you, on behalf of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and Liberal International, to this festive evening.

Tonight, we present the Liberal International Prize for Freedom. This is not an ordinary award. It is not given for comfort, nor for success alone.
It is given for courage - the courage to stand for human dignity, even when doing so comes at an immense personal cost.

And this year, that courage has a name: Osman Kavala.

For more than eight and a half years, he has been imprisoned - on charges widely regarded as fabricated and politically motivated.

His true “crime” was that he stood for something powerful: an open society, dialogue, and the belief that people - no matter their background - can understand one another. His case has echoed around the world. Courts have spoken. Foreign governments have taken a stand. Civil society organizations have raised their voices. Many awards have been given to Osman Kavala. And yet - he remains behind bars.

This is the uncomfortable truth we must face tonight:
that justice, even when clearly articulated, does not always prevail on its own.

And that is precisely why we are here tonight. Because freedom and justice do not sustain themselves. They depend on people who are willing to stand up for them - again and again. This becomes most evident when we consider those who bear the human consequences of such injustice.

Dear Mrs. Buğra,

It is a great honor for us that you are here tonight to accept this award on behalf of your husband. At the same time, this is a deeply moving moment - one that reminds us that behind every political case lies a personal story: families who wait, beloved ones who hope, lives that have been disrupted.

When you and I first met last year, I came to know you as a remarkably strong woman - a woman who bears both her husband’s fate and her own with great dignity - but also with an entirely understandable impatience for justice. That is why tonight’s award must be more than an act of recognition. It must also be an act of commitment. This prize is not the end of a story. It is a call to action - for us.

It calls on us to speak out when silence would be easier.
To stand firm when principles are tested.
To defend freedom not only in words, but in deeds.

So let us not leave this room unchanged tonight.
Let us insist - persistently and unmistakably - that injustice must be named, and that it must end.

Therefore, when we award the LI Prize for Freedom to Osman Kavala tonight, we do that not only as a sign of recognition for him, but also as an expression of our shared responsibility.

So let us raise our voices, ladies and gentlemen - for Osman Kavala, in our networks, in our institutions, and in our daily lives.

Thank you all for being here and thank you for your solidarity!