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Abdullah Öcalan


Abdullah Öcalan (pronounced Euh-ja-lán) is the leader of the national release army, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and a Kurdish popular leader.

Abdullah Öcalan was born on 4 April 1949 into a poor peasant family in the village of Ömerli (in Kurdish, Amara), Urfa. He studied at vocational school and then pursued a course at the School of Political Science, Ankara University . He became involved in militant left-wing politics and was first arrested in 1973. In 1975 he returned to the region known as Kurdistan and became one of the founder members of the predecessor of PKK, UKO (National Liberation Army). At the first Congress of the PKK in November 1978 he was elected their leader.

He left Turkey in 1979, before the military coup of September 1980, which led to the imprisonment of thousands of members and sympathisers of radical Kurdish terrorist groups, astutuely enabling the PKK to survive when rival groups were torn apart, and making Öcalan undisputed leader of radical Kurdish nationalism within Turkey. In 1982 the PKK decided to resume an armed struggle inside Turkey and in August 1984 the military wing, the Liberation Units of Kurdistan (HRK), began operations. In 1985 the political wing was renamed the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK) and in 1986 the HRK became the Peoples Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK).

He was forced out of his group's base in Syria, following pressure from Turkey, in November 1998. He fled to Russia and then Europe, he was arrested after arriving from Moscow at Rome's Fiumicino Airport . He was soon released while he appealed for political asylum, and Italian law forbids the extradition of someone to a country where they could face the death sentence. An extradition request from Germany also collapsed amid political maneuvering. He left Italy on 16 January 1999 and returned to Russia but soon left for Greece, apparently intending to fly from there to The Hague. He was refused entry to a number of European states and instead, according to unconfirmed reports in the Greek press at the time, on 3 February the Greek authorities flew him to Nairobi, Kenya.

On February 15, 1999 Turkey succeeded in apprehending him in Nairobi and quickly transported him to Turkey. Although American intelligence units have been implicated, the details of his capture remain unclear. On February 16, across Europe, Kurdish supporters responded with protests, acts of violence and terrorism. Öcalan was charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey on February 23.

Öcalan is held as the only inmate on the prison island of Imrali. He was tried before a military tribunal on the island from May 31, 1999. The proceedings sat for six days, although there were lengthy adjournments, and Öcalan was sentenced to death on June 29.

Although many Turks supported the death sentence in the case of Öcalan, it was a decidedly controversial decision, Turkey having suspended the death penalty since 1984, and there was serious debate among the Turkish press and political élite about the desirability of actually carrying the sentence out. The far-right Nationalist Movement Party fought the 1999 General Election campaign largely on the single issue of executing Öcalan swiftly.

His appeal was rejected in November but the sentence was suspended while the European Court of Human Rights reviewed the case. In September 2002 a Turkish court finally reduced his sentence to life imprisonment. The country had abandoned the death penalty in August 2002 as part of the process towards joining the European Union.

Öcalan remains, needless to say, a controversial figure in Turkey and beyond. The Turkish government and most Turkish citizens, including many Turkish-Kurds (tribal pro-Turkish militia) regard Öcalan a terrorist who is singularly responsible for a terrorist war which claimed over 30,000 lives, including women and even young children. On the other hand, some radical Kurds on the far-left look to him for leadership and call him "Apo" or "uncle", seeing him as the leader of a struggle against decades long suppression of the Kurdish identity. Ironically the word 'Öcalan' is Turkish for 'he who takes revenge'.

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Last updated: 10-24-2004 05:10:45