Abdullah Öcalan ( OH-jə-lahn; Turkish: [ød͡ʒaɫan];
born about 1947), 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 İmralı island, 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.
The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has
resulted in over 40,000 deaths, including
PKK members, the Turkish military, and civilians,
both Kurdish and Turkish.From prison, Öcalan
has published several books, the most recent
in 2015.
Jineology, also known as the science of women,
is a form of feminism advocated by Öcalan
and subsequently a fundamental tenet of Kurdish
nationalism.
== Biography ==
Öcalan was born in Ömerli, a village in
Halfeti, Şanlıurfa Province in eastern Turkey.
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.
He is the oldest of seven children.
According to some sources, Öcalan's grandmother
was an ethnic Turk and (he once claimed that)
his mother was also an ethnic Turk.
According to Amikam Nachmani, lecturer at
the Bar-Ilan University in Israel, Öcalan
did not know Kurdish when he met him in 1991.
Nachmani: "He [Öcalan] told me that he speaks
Turkish, gives orders in Turkish, and thinks
in Turkish."
Öcalan's brother Osman became a PKK commander,
serving until defecting with several others
to establish the Patriotic and Democratic
Party of Kurdistan.
His other brother, Mehmet Öcalan, is a member
of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party
(BDP).After graduating from a vocational high
school in Ankara (Turkish: Ankara Tapu-Kadastro
Meslek Lisesi), Öcalan started working at
the Diyarbakir Title Deeds Office.
He was relocated one month later to Bakırköy,
Istanbul.
Later, he entered the Istanbul Law Faculty
but transferred after the first year to Ankara
University to study political science.
His return to Ankara (normally impossible
given his situation) was facilitated by the
state in order to divide a militant group,
Dev-Genç (Revolutionary Youth Federation
of Turkey), of which Öcalan at the time was
a member of.
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, Öcalan founded the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), which launched a war
against the Turkish government in order to
set up an independent Kurdish state.
In July 1979 he fled to Syria, where he remained
until October 1998, when the Syrian government
expelled him.Öcalan attempted in early 2004
to arrange a meeting with Murray Bookchin
through his lawyers, describing himself as
Bookchin's "student" eager to adapt his thought
to Middle Eastern society.
Bookchin was too ill to accept the request.
In May 2004 Bookchin conveyed this message
"My hope is that the Kurdish people will one
day be able to establish a free, rational
society that will allow their brilliance once
again to flourish.
They are fortunate indeed to have a leader
of Mr. Öcalan's talents to guide them".
When Bookchin died in 2006, the PKK hailed
the American thinker as "one of the greatest
social scientists of the 20th century", and
vowed to put his theory into practice.
== Kurdish–Turkish conflict ==
In 1984, the PKK initiated a campaign of armed
conflict, comprising attacks against government
forces in Turkey as well as civilians in order
to create an independent Kurdish state.
As a result, the United States, European Union,
NATO, Syria, Australia, Turkey, and many other
countries have included the PKK on their lists
of terrorist organizations.
== Capture and trial ==
Until 1998, Öcalan was based in Syria.
On at least one occasion, in 1993, he was
detained and held by Syria's General Intelligence
Directorate but later released.
As the situation deteriorated in Turkey, the
Turkish government openly threatened Syria
over its support for the PKK.
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 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 Britta Böhler,
a high-profile German attorney who argued
that he fought a legitimate struggle against
the oppression of ethnic Kurds.
He was captured in Kenya on 15 February 1999,
while being transferred from the Greek embassy
to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in
Nairobi, in an operation by the Millî İstihbarat
Teşkilâtı (Turkish National Intelligence
Organization) reportedly with the help of
the CIA.
George Costoulas, the Greek consul who protected
him, said that his life was in danger after
the operation.Speaking to Can Dündar on NTV
Turkey, the Deputy Undersecretary of the Turkish
National Intelligence Organization, 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.
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.After his capture,
Öcalan was held in solitary confinement as
the only prisoner on İmralı island in the
Sea of Marmara.
Although former prisoners at İmralı 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.
This sentence was commuted to life imprisonment
upon the abolition of the death penalty in
Turkey in August 2002.
No one had been executed in Turkey since 1984.
The Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP) may
have aided this case's decision.Following
the commutation, Öcalan remained imprisoned
on İmralı, 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 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 the Turkish court.Since 27 July 2011 his
lawyers have not been allowed to see Abdullah
Öcalan anymore.
The lawyers have appealed 700 times for visits,
but all were rejected.
The last time Abdullah Öcalan was visited
was on 11 September 2016 by his brother Mehmet
Öcalan.
== 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 crimes committed
by the PKK and Turkish security forces; a
parallel structure began functioning in May
2006.
In March 2005, Öcalan issued the Declaration
of Democratic confederalism in Kurdistan calling
for a border-free confederation between the
Kurdish regions of Eastern Turkey (called
"Northern Kurdistan" by Kurds), East Syria
("Western Kurdistan"), Northern Iraq ("South
Kurdistan"), and West of 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 the PKK programme
following the "Refoundation Congress" in April
2005.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 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.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 Erdogan
welcomed the statement and hope for a peaceful
settlement has been raised on both sides.
Soon after Öcalan's declaration was read,
the functional head of the PKK, Murat Karayılan
responded by promising to implement the ceasefire,
stating, "Everyone should know the PKK is
as ready for peace as it is for war".
=== Democratic confederalism ===
Since his incarceration, Öcalan has significantly
changed his ideology, reading Western social
theorists such as Murray Bookchin, Immanuel
Wallerstein, Fernand Braudel, fashioned his
ideal society as "Democratic Confederalism"
(drawing heavily on Bookchin's libertarian
socialist idea of "Communalism"), and refers
to Friedrich Nietzsche as "a prophet".
He also wrote books and articles on the history
of pre-capitalist Mesopotamia and Abrahamic
religions.
With his 2005 "Declaration of Democratic Confederalism
in Kurdistan", Öcalan advocated for a Kurdish
implementation of Bookchin's The Ecology of
Freedom via municipal assemblies as a democratic
confederation of Kurdish communities beyond
the state borders of Syria, Iran, Iraq, and
Turkey.
Öcalan promoted a platform of shared values:
environmental defense, self-defense, gender
equality, and pluralistic tolerance for religion,
politics, and culture.
While some of his followers questioned Öcalan's
conversion from Marxism-Leninism, the PKK
adopted Öcalan's proposal and began to form
assemblies.Followers of Öcalan and members
of the PKK are known, after his diminutive
name, as Apocu (Apo-ites) under his movement,
Apoculuk (Apoism).
== Publications ==
Öcalan 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.
Interviews and Speeches.
London: Kurdistan Solidarity Committee; Kurdistan
Information Centre, 1991.
46 p.
Translation of his 1999 defense in court at
the Wayback Machine (archived 20 October 2007)
Prison Writings: The Roots of Civilisation
London; Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto, 2007.
ISBN 9780745326160.
Prison Writings Volume II: The PKK and the
Kurdish Question in the 21st Century.
London: Transmedia, 2011.
ISBN 9780956751409.
Democratic Confederalism.
London: Transmedia, 2011.
ISBN 978-3941012479.
Prison Writings III: The Road Map to Negotiations.
Cologne: International Initiative, 2012.
ISBN 9783941012431.
Liberating life: Women’s Revolution.
Cologne, Germany: International Initiative
Edition, 2013.
ISBN 978-3-941012-82-0.
Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization, Volume
1.
Porsgrunn, Norway: New Compass, 2015.
ISBN 9788293064428.
Defending a Civilisation.
The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan
London; UK: Pluto Press, 2017.
ISBN 9780745399768.
== See also ==
PJAK
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Kurd Locked in Solitary Cell Holds Key to
Turkish Peace 15 March 2013 Wall Street Journal
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.
"Greece and the Middle East" Spiros Ch.
Kaminaris, Middle East Review of International
Affairs, Volume 3, Number 2 (June 1999).
== External links ==
Special report: The Ocalan file, BBC News,
26 November 1999.
