Abdullah Öcalan
Encyclopedia
Abdullah Öcalan Kurdish
founder of the terrorist organization called Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) in 1978.
Öcalan was captured in Nairobi and extradited to the Turkish security force, and sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed gangs. 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 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/303045.stm on the İmralı
island, in the Sea of Marmara
. Öcalan admitted to the violent nature of the PKK, and that he personally approved and organized attacks and executions. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has resulted in over 40,000 lives being lost, including PKK members, the Turkish military, and civilian
s, both Kurdish
and Turkish
.
From prison, he has published several books, as recently as 2011.
, Şanlıurfa Province
, in the Eastern part of Turkey. The oldest of seven children, Öcalan has one brother, Osman
, who was a PKK leader until defecting with several others to establish the Patriotic and Democratic Party of Kurdistan.
After graduating from a vocational high school in Ankara , Öcalan found employment at the Diyarbakir Title Deeds Office. He was relocated one month later to Bakırköy
, Istanbul. Later, he entered Istanbul Law Faculty
but transferred after the first year to Ankara University
to study political science.
His return to Ankara (normally impossible given his conditionNormally, students can only transfer between like departments, otherwise the student must retake the university entrance exam. Moreover, Öcalan was awarded a scholarship by the Ministry of Finance, despite being ineligible due to his age, and the fact that he had participated in political demonstrations. He had also been tried and acquitted by a martial law
court. The public prosecutor had asked for the harshest possible sentence.) was facilitated by the state in order to divide a militant group, Dev-Genç. President Süleyman Demirel
later regretted this decision, since the PKK was to become a much greater threat to the state than Dev-Genç.
In 1978, in the midst of the right- and left-wing conflicts which culminated in the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, Abdullah Öcalan founded the PKK, and launched a war against Turkey in order to set up an independent Kurdish state.
in order to create an independent Kurdish state. The PKK was linked to extortion rackets and drug trafficking in order to raise funds, which resulted in the United States
, European Union
, NATO, Syria
, Australia
, Turkey
, and many other countries including the PKK on their lists of terrorist organizations.
Öcalan went to Russia
first and from there moved to various countries, including Italy
and Greece
. In 1998 the Turkish government requested the extradition of Öcalan from Italy. He was at that time defended by the high-profile German attorney, Britta Böhler
, who argued that he fought a legitimate struggle against the oppression of ethnic Kurds.
He was captured in Kenya
on February 15, 1999, while being transferred from the Greek embassy to Jomo Kenyata international airport Nairobi
, in an operation by the Millî İstihbarat Teşkilâtı with debatable help of CIA. The Greek consul who harboured him, George Costoulas, said that his life was in danger after the operation.
Speaking to Can Dündar
on NTV Turkey
, Deputy Undersecretary of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization, Cevat Öneş, said that Öcalan impeded American aspirations of establishing a separate Kurdish state so he was handed to the Turkish authorities, who then flew him back to Turkey for trial. His capture led thousands of protesting 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 violent demonstrations in support of Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan. The warning came after three Kurds were killed and 16 injured while storming the Israeli Consulate in Berlin. During the flight from Kenya to Turkey, a video recorded by Millî İstihbarat Teşkilâtı officers. Ocalan stated that his mother is of Turkish origin and that he was ready to serve the people of Turkey in any way.
After his capture Öcalan was held in solitary confinement as the only prisoner on İmralı
island in the Sea of Marmara
. Despite the fact that former prisoners at İmralı
were transferred to other prisons, there were still over 1,000 Turkish military personnel stationed on the island to guard him. He was sentenced to death, but this sentence was commuted to life-long imprisonment upon the abolition of the death penalty in Turkey in August 2002. No one has been executed in Turkey since 1984. The Kurdish Human Rights Project
(KHRP) may have aided this case's decision.
In November 2009, Turkish authorities announced that he would be relocated to a new prison on the island and that they were ending his solitary confinement on transferring several other PKK prisoners to İmralı, and 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
visited the island and objected to the conditions in which he was being held.
In 2005, the European Court of Human Rights
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. Öcalan's request for a retrial was refused by Turkish court.
s committed by PKK and Turkish security forces and a parallel structure began functioning in May 2006. In March 2005, Abdullah Öcalan issued the Declaration of Democratic Confederalism in Kurdistan calling for a border free confederation between the Kurdish regions of Turkey (called "Northwest Kurdistan" by Kurdish nationalists), 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.
Since his incarceration he has significantly changed his ideology, reading Western
social theorists like Murray Bookchin
, Immanuel Wallerstein
, Fernand Braudel
, fashioned his ideal society as "Democratic Confederalism" and refers to Friedrich Nietzsche
as "a prophet". He also wrote books and articles on the history of pre-capitalist Mesopotamia
and Abrahamic religions
.
Öcalan had his lawyer, Ibrahim Bilmez, 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".
On May 31, 2010 however, Öcalan said he was abandoning attempts to start dialogue between the PKK and Turkey saying that "this process is no longer meaningful or useful" and 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.
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
founder of the terrorist organization called Kurdistan Workers' Party
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
(PKK) in 1978.
Öcalan was captured in Nairobi and extradited to the Turkish security force, and sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed gangs. 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
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. From 1999 until 2009, he was the sole prisoner http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/303045.stm on the İmralı
Imrali
İmralı is a small Turkish island located in the south of the Sea of Marmara, west of Armutlu-Bozburun peninsula within Bursa Province. It served from 1999 until 2009 as a maximum-security prison island for its only inmate, Abdullah Öcalan...
island, in the Sea of Marmara
Sea of Marmara
The Sea of Marmara , also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as the Propontis , is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Black...
. Öcalan admitted to the violent nature of the PKK, and that he personally approved and organized attacks and executions. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has resulted in over 40,000 lives being lost, including PKK members, the Turkish military, and civilian
Civilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...
s, both Kurdish
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
and Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
.
From prison, he has published several books, as recently as 2011.
Biography
Abdullah Öcalan was born in Ömerli, a village in HalfetiHalfeti
Halfeti is a small farming district on the east bank of the river Euphrates in Şanlıurfa Province in Turkey, 120 km from the city of Şanlıurfa. Population 33,467 .Most of the villages were submerged in the 1990s under the waters behind the dam on the Euphrates at Birecik...
, Şanlıurfa Province
Sanliurfa Province
Şanlıurfa Province or simply Urfa Province is a province in Southeast Anatolia, Turkey. The city of Şanlıurfa is the capital of the province which bears its name. The population is 1,663,371 ....
, in the Eastern part of Turkey. The oldest of seven children, Öcalan has one brother, Osman
Osman Ocalan
Osman Öcalan is a former Kurdish militant leader.The younger brother of Abdullah Öcalan, Osman studied at teachers’ training college before joining the PKK when it was founded in 1978 and spending two years in Libya...
, who was a PKK leader until defecting with several others to establish the Patriotic and Democratic Party of Kurdistan.
After graduating from a vocational high school in Ankara , Öcalan found employment at the Diyarbakir Title Deeds Office. He was relocated one month later to Bakırköy
Bakirköy
This article is about a neighbourhood in IstanbulBakırköy is a neighborhood, municipality and district on the European side of İstanbul, Turkey. The quarter is densely populated, has a residential character and is inhabited by a middle class population...
, Istanbul. Later, he entered Istanbul Law Faculty
Istanbul University
Istanbul University is a Turkish university located in Istanbul. The main campus is adjacent to Beyazıt Square.- Synopsis :A madrasa, a religious school, was established sometime in the 15th century after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. An institution of higher education named the...
but transferred after the first year to Ankara University
Ankara University
Ankara University is a public university in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in the Turkish Republic....
to study political science.
His return to Ankara (normally impossible given his conditionNormally, students can only transfer between like departments, otherwise the student must retake the university entrance exam. Moreover, Öcalan was awarded a scholarship by the Ministry of Finance, despite being ineligible due to his age, and the fact that he had participated in political demonstrations. He had also been tried and acquitted by a martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
court. The public prosecutor had asked for the harshest possible sentence.) was facilitated by the state in order to divide a militant group, Dev-Genç. President Süleyman Demirel
Süleyman Demirel
Sami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel, better known as Süleyman Demirel , is a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister seven times and was the ninth President of Turkey.-Life:Demirel was born in İslamköy, a town in Isparta Province...
later regretted this decision, since the PKK was to become a much greater threat to the state than Dev-Genç.
In 1978, in the midst of the right- and left-wing conflicts which culminated in the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, Abdullah Öcalan founded the PKK, and launched a war against Turkey in order to set up an independent Kurdish state.
Turkey-PKK conflict
In 1984, the PKK initiated a campaign of armed conflict comprising attacks against government forces in TurkeyTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
in order to create an independent Kurdish state. The PKK was linked to extortion rackets and drug trafficking in order to raise funds, which resulted in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, NATO, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, and many other countries including the PKK on their lists of terrorist organizations.
Capture and trial
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. As a result of this, the Syrian government forced Öcalan to leave the country, but did not turn him over to the Turkish authorities.Öcalan went to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
first and from there moved to various countries, including Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. In 1998 the Turkish government requested the extradition of Öcalan from Italy. He was at that time defended by the high-profile German attorney, Britta Böhler
Britta Böhler
Britta Böhler is a lawyer in international law and human rights, and a member of the Dutch Senate for the GreenLeft Party. She was born in West Germany and became a Dutch citizen to run for political office....
, who argued that he fought a legitimate struggle against the oppression of ethnic Kurds.
He was captured in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
on February 15, 1999, while being transferred from the Greek embassy to Jomo Kenyata international airport Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
, in an operation by the Millî İstihbarat Teşkilâtı with debatable help of CIA. The Greek consul who harboured him, George Costoulas, said that his life was in danger after the operation.
Speaking to Can Dündar
Can Dündar
Can Dündar is a Turkish journalist, columnist and documentarian. He is one of the best known figures in Turkish media, described as possessing "impeccable republican credentials".-Biography:...
on NTV Turkey
NTV Turkey
NTV is a Turkish nationwide television news channel. NTV was founded in 1996 by Turkish businessman Cavit Çağlar as the first news channel of Turkey and has partnered with MSNBC since May 2000. Aired on this channel is usually the news but also provides football games, especially La Liga matches,...
, Deputy Undersecretary of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization, Cevat Öneş, said that Öcalan impeded American aspirations of establishing a separate Kurdish state so he was handed to the Turkish authorities, who then flew him back to Turkey for trial. His capture led thousands of protesting 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 violent demonstrations in support of Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan. The warning came after three Kurds were killed and 16 injured while storming the Israeli Consulate in Berlin. During the flight from Kenya to Turkey, a video recorded by Millî İstihbarat Teşkilâtı officers. Ocalan stated that his mother is of Turkish origin and that he was ready to serve the people of Turkey in any way.
After his capture Öcalan was held in solitary confinement as the only prisoner on İmralı
Imrali
İmralı is a small Turkish island located in the south of the Sea of Marmara, west of Armutlu-Bozburun peninsula within Bursa Province. It served from 1999 until 2009 as a maximum-security prison island for its only inmate, Abdullah Öcalan...
island in the Sea of Marmara
Sea of Marmara
The Sea of Marmara , also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as the Propontis , is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Black...
. Despite the fact that former prisoners at İmralı
Imrali
İmralı is a small Turkish island located in the south of the Sea of Marmara, west of Armutlu-Bozburun peninsula within Bursa Province. It served from 1999 until 2009 as a maximum-security prison island for its only inmate, Abdullah Öcalan...
were transferred to other prisons, there were still over 1,000 Turkish military personnel stationed on the island to guard him. He was sentenced to death, but this sentence was commuted to life-long imprisonment upon the abolition of the death penalty in Turkey in August 2002. No one has been executed in Turkey since 1984. The Kurdish Human Rights Project
Kurdish Human Rights Project
The Kurdish Human Rights Project is the only non-partisan human rights organisation consistently working in the Kurdish regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and elsewhere...
(KHRP) may have aided this case's decision.
In November 2009, Turkish authorities announced that he would be relocated to a new prison on the island and that they were ending his solitary confinement on transferring several other PKK prisoners to İmralı, and 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
Committee for the Prevention of Torture
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment or shortly Committee for the Prevention of Torture is the anti-torture committee of the Council of Europe...
visited the island and objected to the conditions in which he was being held.
In 2005, the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
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. Öcalan's request for a retrial was refused by Turkish court.
Proposal for political solution
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. Öcalan called for the foundation of a "Truth and Justice Commission" by Kurdish institutions in order to investigate war crimeWar crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s committed by PKK and Turkish security forces and a parallel structure began functioning in May 2006. In March 2005, Abdullah Öcalan issued the Declaration of Democratic Confederalism in Kurdistan calling for a border free confederation between the Kurdish regions of Turkey (called "Northwest Kurdistan" by Kurdish nationalists), 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.
Since his incarceration he has significantly changed his ideology, reading Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
social theorists like Murray Bookchin
Murray Bookchin
Murray Bookchin was an American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement, Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within anarchist, libertarian socialist and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books on politics,...
, Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein is a US sociologist, historical social scientist, and world-systems analyst...
, Fernand Braudel
Fernand Braudel
Fernand Braudel was a French historian and a leader of the Annales School. His scholarship focused on three main projects, each representing several decades of intense study: The Mediterranean , Civilization and Capitalism , and the unfinished Identity of France...
, fashioned his ideal society as "Democratic Confederalism" and refers to Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
as "a prophet". He also wrote books and articles on the history of pre-capitalist Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
and Abrahamic religions
Abrahamic religions
Abrahamic religions are the monotheistic faiths emphasizing and tracing their common origin to Abraham or recognizing a spiritual tradition identified with him...
.
Öcalan had his lawyer, Ibrahim Bilmez, 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".
On May 31, 2010 however, Öcalan said he was abandoning attempts to start dialogue between the PKK and Turkey saying that "this process is no longer meaningful or useful" and 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.
Publications
Abdullah Ocalan is the author of more than 40 books, four of which were written in prison. Many of the notes taken from his weekly meetings with his lawyers have been edited and published, notably:- Prison Writings: The Roots of Civilisation (2007) ISBN 0-7453-2616-1
- Defending a civilisation
- Sumer rahip devletlerinden demokratik uygarliga volumes 1 and 2
- Translation of his 1999 defense in court
Further reading
- Özcan, Ali Kemal (2005). Turkey's Kurds: A Theoretical Analysis of the PKK and Abdullah Ocalan. London & New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-36687-9.
External links
- Special report: The Ocalan file, BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, November 26, 1999.