Abdullah Öcalan

Abdullah Öcalan ( April 4th, 1948 - ), also known as  Apo (short for both Abdullah and "uncle" in Kurdish),  is a  Kurdish nationalist leader and one of the founding members of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party  (PKK).

Öcalan was arrested in 1999 by the  Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) with the support of the  CIA in  Nairobi and taken to Turkey, where he was sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed organisations.  The sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment when Turkey  abolished the death penalty in support of its bid to be admitted to membership in the  European Union. From 1999 until 2009, he was the sole prisoner  on  İmralıi sland, in the  Sea of Marmara.  Öcalan now argues that the period of armed warfare is past and a political solution to the Kurdish question should be developed. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has resulted in over 40,000 deaths, including PKK members, the  Turkish military<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, and civilians, both  Kurdish<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> and  Turkish<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">From prison, Öcalan has published several books, the most recent in 2015. Jineology<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, also known as the science of women, is a form of  feminism<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> advocated by Öcalan <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> and subsequently a fundamental tenet of  Kurdish nationalism<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">.

Biography
<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">Öcalan was born in  Ömerli<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> a village in  Halfeti<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">,  Şanlıurfa Province<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> in eastern  Turkey<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> While some sources report his birthday as being 4 April 1948, no official birth records for him exist, and he himself claims not to know exactly when he was born, estimating the year to be 1946 or 1947. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> He is the oldest of seven children. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> According to some sources, Öcalan's grandmother was an ethnic  Turk<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> and (he once claimed that) his mother was also an ethnic Turk. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> According to  Amikam Nachmani<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, lecturer at the  Bar-Ilan University<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> in Israel, Öcalan did not know  Kurdish<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> when he met him in 1991. Nachmani: " He [Öcalan] told me that he speaks Turkish, gives orders in Turkish, and thinks in Turkish."

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">Öcalan's brother  Osman<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> became a PKK commander, serving until defecting with several others to establish the  Patriotic and Democratic Party of Kurdistan<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> His other brother,  Mehmet Öcalan<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, is a member of the pro-Kurdish  Peace and Democracy Party <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">(BDP).

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">After graduating from a vocational high school in Ankara ( Turkish<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">:  <span lang="tr" style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;" lang="tr">Ankara Tapu-Kadastro Meslek Lisesi <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">), Öcalan started working at the Diyarbakir Title Deeds Office. He was relocated one month later to  Bakırköy<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, Istanbul. Later, he entered the  Istanbul Law Faculty <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">but transferred after the first year to  Ankara University<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> to study political science. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:11.2px;line-height:11.2px;white-space:nowrap;">  <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">His return to Ankara (normally impossible given his situation <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">) was facilitated by the state in order to divide a militant group,  Dev-Genç<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> (Revolutionary Youth Federation of Turkey). President  Süleyman Demirel<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> later regretted this decision, since the PKK was to become a much greater threat to the state than Dev-Genç.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In 1978, in the midst of the right- and left-wing conflicts which culminated in the  1980 Turkish coup d'état<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, Öcalan founded the  Kurdistan Workers' Party<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> (PKK), which launched a war against the Turkish regime in order to set up an independent Kurdish state. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> In July 1979 he fled to Syria, where he remained until October 1998, when the Syrian government expelled him.

Kurdish–Turkish conflict
<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In 1984, the PKK initiated a campaign of armed conflict, comprising attacks against government forces <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> in  Turkey<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> as well as civilians <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:11.2px;line-height:11.2px;white-space:nowrap;">  <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">in order to create an independent Kurdish state. As a result, the United States,  European Union<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">,  NATO<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">,  Syria<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, Australia,  Turkey<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, and  many other countries<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> have included the PKK on their lists of terrorist organizations.

Capture and trial
<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">Until 1998, Öcalan was based in Syria. As the situation deteriorated in Turkey, the Turkish government openly threatened Syria over its support for the PKK. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> As a result, the Syrian government forced Öcalan to leave the country, but did not turn him over to the Turkish authorities. Öcalan went to  Russia<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> first and from there moved to various countries, including  Italy<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> and  Greece<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">. In 1998 the Turkish government requested the extradition of Öcalan from Italy. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> He was at that time defended by  Britta Böhler<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, a high-profile German attorney who argued that he fought a legitimate struggle against the oppression of ethnic Kurds.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">He was captured in  Kenya<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> on 15 February 1999, while being transferred from the Greek embassy to  Jomo Kenyatta International Airport<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> in Nairobi<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, in an operation by the  Millî İstihbarat Teşkilâtı (Turkish National Intelligence Organization)<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> reportedly with the help of  CIA<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">George Costoulas, the Greek consul who protected him, said that his life was in danger after the operation.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">Speaking to  Can Dündar<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> on  NTV Turkey<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, the Deputy Undersecretary of the Turkish  National Intelligence Organization<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, Cevat Öneş, said that Öcalan impeded American aspirations of establishing a separate Kurdish state. The Americans transferred him to the Turkish authorities, who flew him back to Turkey for trial. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> His capture led thousands of Kurds to protest at Greek and Israeli embassies around the world. Kurds living in Germany have been threatened with deportation if they continue to hold demonstrations in support of Öcalan. The warning came after three Kurds were killed and 16 injured during the  1999 attack on the Israeli Consulate in Berlin<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> Öcalan stated that his mother is of Turkish origin and that he was ready to serve the people of Turkey in any way.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">After his capture, Öcalan was held in solitary confinement as the only prisoner on  İmralı<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> island in the  Sea of Marmara<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">. Although former prisoners at  İmralı<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> were transferred to other prisons, more than 1,000 Turkish military personnel were stationed on the island to guard him. A state security court consisting of three military judges was convened on the island to try him. Öcalan was charged with and convicted of treason and separatism, and sentenced to death. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> This sentence was commuted to  life imprisonment<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> upon the abolition of the  death penalty<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">in Turkey in August 2002. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> No one had been executed in Turkey since 1984. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> The  Kurdish Human Rights Project<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> (KHRP) may have aided this case's decision.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">Following the commutation, Öcalan remained imprisoned on  İmralı<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, and was the sole inmate there. In November 2009, Turkish authorities announced that Öcalan would be relocated to a new prison on the island and that they were ending his solitary confinement by transferring several other PKK prisoners to İmralı. They said that Öcalan would be allowed to see them for ten hours a week. The new prison was built after the Council of Europe's  Committee for the Prevention of Torture<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> visited the island and objected to the conditions in which he was being held.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In 2005, the  European Court of Human Rights<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> ruled that Turkey had violated articles 3, 5 and 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights by granting Öcalan no effective remedy to appeal his arrest and sentencing him to death without a fair trial. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> Öcalan's request for a retrial was refused by the Turkish court.

Proposal for political solution
<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">Abandoning his precapture policy, which involved violence targeting civilians as well as military personnel, Öcalan has advocated a relatively peaceful solution to the Kurdish conflict inside the borders of Turkey. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> Öcalan called for the foundation of a "Truth and Justice Commission" by Kurdish institutions in order to investigate  war crimes<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> committed by the PKK and Turkish security forces; a parallel structure began functioning in May 2006. <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> In March 2005, Öcalan issued the  Declaration of Democratic Confederalism in Kurdistan<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> calling for a border-free confederation between the Kurdish regions of Eastern Turkey (called " Northern Kurdistan<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">" by Kurds <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">), East Syria (" Western Kurdistan<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">"), Northern Iraq (" South Kurdistan<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">"), and West of Iran (" East Kurdistan<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">"). 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 the PKK programme following the "Refoundation Congress" in April 2005.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">Since his incarceration, Öcalan has significantly changed his ideology, reading Western  social theorists<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> such as  Murray Bookchin<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, Immanuel Wallerstein<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">,  Fernand Braudel<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> fashioned his ideal society as "Democratic Confederalism" (drawing heavily on Bookchin's  Communalism<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">), <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> and refers to  Friedrich Nietzsche<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> as "a prophet". <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> He also wrote books <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> and articles <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> on the history of pre-capitalist  Mesopotamia<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> and  Abrahamic religions<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">Öcalan had his lawyer, Ibrahim Bilmez, <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> 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". <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> He made another such declaration in March 2013.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">On 31 May 2010, however, Öcalan said he was abandoning an ongoing dialogue between him and Turkey saying that "this process is no longer meaningful or useful". Turkey ignored his three protocols for negotiation that included (a) his terms of health and security (b) his release and (c) a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish issue in Turkey. Though the Turkish government received these protocols, they were never published. Öcalan stated that he would leave the top PKK commanders in charge of the conflict. However, he also said that his comments should not be misinterpreted as a call for the PKK to intensify its armed conflict with the Turkish state.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">More recently, Öcalan has shown renewed cooperation with the Turkish government and hope for a peaceful resolution to three decades of conflict. On 21 March 2013, Öcalan declared a ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish state. Öcalan's statement was read to hundreds of thousands of Kurds gathered to celebrate the Kurdish New Year and it states, "Let guns be silenced and politics dominate... a new door is being opened from the process of armed conflict to democratization and democratic politics. It's not the end. It's the start of a new era." Turkish Prime Minister  Recep Tayyip Erdoğan<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> welcomed the statement and hope for a peaceful settlement has been raised on both sides.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">Soon after Öcalan's declaration was read, the functional head of the PKK,  Murat Karayılan<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> responded by promising to implement the ceasefire, stating, "Everyone should know the PKK is as ready for peace as it is for war".