Abdullah Öcalan

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Abdullah "Apo" Öcalan (born April 4, 1948), is the leader of the Kurdish terrorist organisation Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

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[edit] Biography

Öcalan was born in Ömerli, a village in Halfeti, Şanlıurfa Province, in the southeast of Turkey.[1] After leaving his village after secondary school he studied Political Sciences at the University of Ankara, but dropped out and entered the civil service in Diyarbakir.[citation needed] It is claimed by some Turkish media that he is actually an ethnic Armenian named "Artin Agopyan" who later took the surname of "Öcalan" meaning "Revenge taker" in Turkish.[2]

Influenced by the situation of the Kurdish people, Abdullah Öcalan became an active member of the Democratic Cultural Associations of the East, an association promoting the rights of the Kurdish people [citation needed]. In 1978, two years before the military coup in 1980, the Kurdistan Workers Party was founded with Abdullah Öcalan as its leader. He currently retains in this post.

In 1984 the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) initiated a campaign of armed conflict comprising of militant attacks against government forces and civilians [3][4][5][6] in Iraq, Iran, and Turkey in order to create an independent Kurdish state. Approximately 30,000 people were killed by PKK as a result of these attacks between 1984 and 2003.

PKK has been labelled a terrorist organisation by several states and international organizations such as Turkey,[7] the United States,[8] the European Union, Syria,[9] Canada, Iran and Australia.[citation needed]

[edit] Capture and trial

Öcalan was using a Cypriot passport
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Öcalan was using a Cypriot passport
Abdullah Öcalan right after capture
Enlarge
Abdullah Öcalan right after capture

Until 1998 Syria was harboring the leader of PKK. As the situation got worse in Turkey, the Turkish government openly threatened Syria over its support for the PKK. As a result of this, the Syrian government forced Öcalan to move out of the country instead of handing him to the Turkish authorities.

Öcalan went to Russia first and from there he moved to various countries, including Italy and Greece. In 1998 while in Italy the Turkish government requested the extradition of Öcalan. He was at that time counselled by the high-profile German attorney, Britta Böhler. The Netherlands based attorney argued that he fought a legitimate struggle against the oppression of his people. He was eventually captured in Kenya on February 15, 1999, while being transferred from the Greek embassy to the Nairobi international airport, in an operation by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT). He was then flown back to Turkey for trial. His capture led thousands of protesting Kurds to seize Greek embassies around the world.[10]

Öcalan has been held under solitary confinement as the only prisoner on the İmralı Island in the Turkish Sea of Marmara since his capture, though initially sentenced to death. Despite the fact that all other prisoners formerly at İmralı were transferred to other prisons, there are still over 1000 Turkish military personnel stationed there guarding one prisoner. His sentence was commuted to life-long aggravated imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished in Turkey in August 2002.[2]

[edit] Current situation

Italian communist poster, in solidarity with Öcalan
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Italian communist poster, in solidarity with Öcalan

Since his arrest, Öcalan has campaigned for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish conflict inside the borders of Turkey[11] [12][13][14][15]. Öcalan called for the foundation of a "Truth and Justice Commission" by Kurdish institutions in order to investigate "war crimes" committed by PKK and Turkish security forces. A parallel structure began functioning in May 2006.[16] In March 2005, Abdullah Öcalan released the Declaration of Democratic Confederalism in Kurdistan[17] in which he asks for a border free confederation between the Kurdish regions of Turkey (called "Northwest Kurdistan" by PKK[18]), Syria ("Small part of South Kurdistan"), Iraq ("South Kurdistan"), and Iran ("East Kurdistan"). In this zone, three bodies of law would be implemented: EU law, Turkish/Syrian/Iraqi/Iranian law and Kurdish law. This perspective was included in PKK programme following the "Refoundation Congress" in April 2005.[19]

Since his incarceration he has significantly changed his ideology, reading Western social theorists like Murray Bookchin, Immanuel Wallerstein, Fernand Braudel,[20]fashioned his ideal society as "Democratic-Ecological Society" (later renamed as "Democratic-Ecological-Gender Liberationist Society" as it is in the current programme of PKK) and refers to Friedrich Nietzsche as "a prophet".[21] He also wrote books [22] and articles[23] on the history of pre-capitalist Mesopotamia and Abrahamic religions.

[edit] Freedom for Öcalan campaign

There are many organizations in Turkey and among exiled Kurds in Europe that campaign for his release and/or a general amnesty for all political prisoners in Turkey. While such campaigns appear to have widespread support among exiled Kurds, the prospect of the Turkish government agreeing to such an amnesty is remote because it would likely trigger a violent backlash amongst Turkish population in general.

[edit] Calls for truce

Öcalan had his lawyer, Ibrahim Bilmez,[24] release a statement 28 September 2006, calling on the PKK to declare a ceasefire and seek peace with Turkey. Öcalan's statement said, "The PKK should not use weapons unless it is attacked with the aim of annihilation," and that it is "very important to build a democratic union between Turks and Kurds. With this process, the way to democratic dialogue will be also opened".[25]

[edit] See also

  • PJAK, Iranian Kurdish resistance group inspired by philosophy of Abdullah Öcalan

[edit] References

  1. ^ Who is Abdullah Ocalan? CNN
  2. ^ Police magazine of Turkey Polýs Dergýsý
  3. ^ The Workers' Party of Kurdistan (PKK) Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Turkey
  4. ^ Letter to Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema Human Rights Watch, November 21, 1998
  5. ^ Turkey: No security without human rights Amnesty International, October 1996
  6. ^ Special Report: Terrorism in Turkey Ulkumen Rodophu, Jeffrey Arnold and Gurkan Ersoy, February 6, 2004
  7. ^ PKK & TERRORISM: A Report on the PKK and Terrorism
  8. ^ Foreign Terrorist Organizations U.S. Department of State, March 27, 2002
  9. ^ Turco-Syrian Treaty Adana, October 20, 1998
  10. ^ Kurds seize embassies, wage violent protests across Europe CNN.com, February 17, 1999
  11. ^ REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE KURDISH QUESTION IN TURKEY by the international delegation of human rights lawyers, January 1997
  12. ^ Interview with Abdullah Ocalan "Our First Priority Is Diplomacy" Middle East Insight magazine, January 1999
  13. ^ Kurdistan Turkey: Abdullah Ocalan, The End of a Myth? The Middle East magazine, February 2000
  14. ^ Abdullah Öcalan proposes 7-point peace plan Kurdistan Informatie Centrum Nederland
  15. ^ Turkey, Europe and the Kurds after the capture of Abdullah Öcalan Martin van Bruinessen, 1999
  16. ^ Öldürülen imam ve 10 korucunun itibarı iade edildi ANF News Agency, May 30, 2006
  17. ^ Demokratik Konfederalizm
  18. ^ PKK Program (1995) Kurdish Library, January 24, 1995
  19. ^ PKK Yeniden İnşa Bildirgesi PKK website, April 20, 2005
  20. ^ Tarihli Görüşme Notları PWD-Kurdistan, March 16, 2005
  21. ^ Öcalan: Diyarbakır olayları boşanmanın ilanıdır ANF News Agency, May 20, 2006
  22. ^ [1]
  23. ^ denge-mezopotamya.com/besataybet/news_detail.asp?newsid=-769564977&pg=1
  24. ^ Kurdish leader calls for cease-fire NewsFlash
  25. ^ Kurdish rebel boss in truce plea BBC News

[edit] External links

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