For some, he is the banner of the Kurds' struggle for independence. For others - a dangerous criminal and terrorist. Who is this Abdullah Ocalan? The biography of the Kurdish political and military leader will be considered by us in this article. Let's say right away: this personality is ambiguous. Ocalan is an honorary citizen of Naples, Palermo, and other European cities. Many prominent European figures are turning to the Turkish government to release the political prisoner. Last year, the Socialist Party of Ukraine awarded Abdullah Ocalan with the medal Peace and Democracy. At the same time, this political leader of Kurdistan has been sentenced to life imprisonment since 1999 and is currently serving his sentence on the island of Imrali, which is located in the Sea of Marmara. How and why they condemned Abdullah Ocalan - read below.
Youth, education, the beginning of political activity
The hero of our article was born on April 4, 1949 in a simple peasant family. Its small homeland is the Turkish village of Omerli, in the province of Sanliurfa, inhabited by Kurds. As a child, he revealed a great penchant for science, he studied well at school. Parents sent him to study at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Ankara. There he gnawed at the granite of science from 1971 to 1974. As a student, Abdullah Ocalan was inspired by leftist, socialist ideas. And only a little later, these views received a national-patriotic coloring. Ocalan deliberately dropped out of university. In 1974, he organized a group of young people around him, which four years later took shape in a political force called the “Workers' Party of Kurdistan”. Its goal was to create an independent nation-state. Recall that the Kurds live not only in southeastern Turkey, but also in western Iran, northern Iraq and Syria. This nation does not yet have its own statehood.
Military figure
Shortly before a military coup took place in Turkey (1980), Ocalan went to emigrate to Syria. There he organized partisan detachments, which since 1984 began real military operations against the Turkish army. The slogan of this armed struggle was the independence of Kurdistan. Turkey has long pursued a policy of assimilation of national minorities. And against the genocide of the Kurds as a people, he raised the banner of the struggle of Abdullah Ocalan. The party that he led set as its goal the federalization of Turkey and the creation of autonomy. Ocalan denied that he was conducting separatist work aimed at dismembering the country. The party also had a social program. Previously, the PKK stood on Marxist positions. Ocalan later revised his views on communist ideas. He is convinced that social justice cannot be achieved using totalitarian methods. In fact, the PKK is close in its views to the center-left, social-democratic parties.
Refugee
Since all hostilities were fought in Turkey, the Syrian government allowed Ocalan to live on its territory. More than eighteen years - from 1980 to 1998, a political leader and military leader lived in Damascus. However, the government of Hafez al-Assad eventually caved in under pressure from Ankara. Syrian President asked Abdullah Ocalan to leave the country. Abdullah Ocalan came to Russia. In this regard, on November 4, 1998, the State Duma of the Russian Federation decided by a majority of votes to appeal to President Boris Yeltsin and ask him to grant political refugee status to the leader of the Kurdish Workers Party. However, this request remained unanswered. Ocalan moved to Italy and sought asylum there. But, faced with European bureaucracy, he moved to Greece, and from there - to Kenya.
Abduction
Abdullah Ocalan thought to wait in this African country for a solution to his political asylum case in Italy, which was moving very slowly. As a result, the refusal of the migration authorities was appealed by the lawyer of the Kurdish leader in court. But the Turkish secret services acted faster than the European bureaucracy. When the Civil Court of Rome on October 4, 1999 granted the application for refugee status, Abdullah Ocalan was already captured in Nairobi and was awaiting sentence in prison. Turkish secret services organized the abduction of the leader of the Kurds with the help of Israeli. They captured Ocalan on February 15, 1999. Even at the pre-trial stage, he was detained in the most impregnable prison in Turkey on the island of Imrali, fearing his release by supporters. The trial began on May 31 of that year. Abdullah Ocalan was sentenced to death, but under pressure from the world community replaced her with life imprisonment.
The political leader of our time
But even behind bars Ocalan did not lose his charisma and influence. Around the world, a progressively-minded public advocated a fair trial of the leader of the Turkish Kurds. But the process was more like farce. The defendant was not even allowed to talk to his lawyers. But times are changing, and the new government, although it has not reviewed the calan’s case, has done much to soften its conditions. So, in 2009, another five members of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) were transferred to the island . Thus, the national leader is no longer sitting in solitary confinement. New challenges of today have forced Turkish President Erdogan to engage in dialogue with Ocalan. Since 2013, negotiations have been ongoing on a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the government and the Kurdish partisans. A common enemy, ISIS, made inveterate enemies abandon their feuds.
Work
Abdullah Ocalan is the author of many sociological works and books on the subject of Kurdish statehood. Among his famous works are books on colonialism, imperialism, socialism and the problems of the revolution. They are still being republished. One of the most popular is still the work “Personality in Kurdistan. Features of political life and revolutionary struggle. "