ANKARA: Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed Kurdish militant leader labelled the “nemesis” of the Turkish state, remains a highly influential figure in the Kurdish movement despite being cut off from the outside world.
Turkey captured Ocalan, then public enemy number one, on February 15, 1999 after a relentless hunt.
He has been imprisoned on the heavily fortified island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara for two decades and has not been allowed to see his lawyers since 2011.
But while the government brands the burly 69-year-old a “baby-killer,” to Kurds he is known as “Apo” or uncle.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) say more than 300 detainees are on hunger strike to protest what they call Ocalan’s isolation — an indication of his continued importance for the movement.
As he has not been seen or heard in public for years, the popular image of Ocalan remains that of a man with a round face and thick black moustache.
But in photographs released a few years ago “we found that he had aged, his hair and moustache were white,” one of Ocalan’s lawyers, Ibrahim Bilmez, told AFP.
“He has been in isolation at Imrali for 20 years, so it is normal that he is worn down,” Bilmez added.
Ocalan was born into a poor peasant family in the village of Omerli in Turkey’s southeast. His official birthdate is April 4, 1949, but this may not be exact, says Aliza Marcus in the book “Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence.”
He became a left-wing militant during his time at university in Ankara, where he studied politics and threw himself into the Kurdish cause, leading to his first incarceration of seven months in 1972.
In 1978, Ocalan and a group of fellow students founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Marxist-oriented movement fighting for Kurdish autonomy.
Two years later he was in exile, most often in Damascus or Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley which was then under Syrian control and where he set up the PKK’s headquarters.
Ankara branded Ocalan its “nemesis” after Ocalan led the movement on to a path of armed struggle in 1984, planning to carve out a chunk of Turkey to found an independent Kurdish state.
Security forces hit back hard in response to PKK attacks, plunging Turkey’s southeast into a state of near civil war. The group was blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Ankara, the US and the EU.
Ocalan’s first call for a unilateral cease-fire came in 1993, then again in 1995 and 1998, each time seeking a political agreement with Ankara in return.
But authorities said they refused to negotiate with the “terrorist chief” with blood on his hands.
Ocalan’s influence stretches beyond Turkish borders.
His image can be widely seen in areas controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria. Turkey says the US-backed YPG militia is a “terrorist” offshoot of the PKK.
Syria’s permission for Ocalan to seek refuge there caused major friction between Damascus and Ankara, and political pressure forced him out in 1998.
He tried to seek political asylum across Europe, including in Greece, but in 1999 Turkish secret agents nabbed him in the Kenyan capital Nairobi outside the Greek embassy.
He was swiftly sentenced to death for treason, which was commuted to life imprisonment when Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2002.
With Ocalan in custody, Turkey believed the head of the PKK had been cut.
But even behind bars, he continued to exert control over the movement by issuing instructions to his lawyers and the Kurdish MPs who visited him.
Following Ocalan’s arrest, the PKK had said it would strive only for cultural rights rather than an independent Kurdish state.
It entered what proved to be its longest truce, which lasted until 2004. During that period, Turkey undertook some modest reforms for the Kurds.
Then in 2012, it was once again Ocalan who ordered the end of a hunger strike by 700 detained Kurdish lawmakers.
When Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister and now president, threatened — on a wave of nationalist sentiment — to bring back the death penalty for him, he was still seeking dialogue with Ocalan.
In 2013, Ocalan called for another cease-fire to allow peace talks a chance to reach a negotiated settlement. Two years later however, the bloody clashes resumed.
Today there appears little chance of a political solution to a conflict that has cost more than 40,000 lives.
But “for a large majority of Kurds... (Ocalan) is the uncle who embodies the Kurdish nation in its totality” and he would be a key player if talks were to resume, said Hamit Bozarslan of the Paris-based School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.
Imprisoned PKK leader and Turkey’s ‘nemesis’ Ocalan
Imprisoned PKK leader and Turkey’s ‘nemesis’ Ocalan
- In 1978, Ocalan and a group of fellow students founded PKK, a Marxist-oriented movement fighting for Kurdish autonomy
- Turkey captured Ocalan, then public enemy number one, on Feb. 15, 1999 after a relentless hunt
Tent compound rises in Khan Younis as Israel prepares for Rafah offensive
- Israel has said it plans to evacuate civilians from Rafah during an anticipated offensive on the southern city
- The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians
The tent construction is near Khan Younis, which has been targeted by repeated Israeli military operations over recent weeks. Israel has said it plans to evacuate civilians from Rafah during an anticipated offensive on the southern city, where hundreds of thousands of people have taken refuge during the war, now in its seventh month.
Also Monday, a failed rocket strike was launched at a base housing US-led coalition forces at Rumalyn, Syria, marking the first time since Feb. 4 that Iranian-backed militias have attacked a US facility in Iraq or Syria, a US defense official said. No personnel were injured in the attack, and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The conflict has sparked regional unrest pitting Israel and the US against Iran and allied militant groups across the Middle East. Israel and Iran traded fire directly this month, raising fears of all-out war.
The war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which Hamas and other militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, at least two-thirds of them children and women. It has devastated Gaza’s two largest cities and left a swath of destruction. Around 80 percent of the territory’s population have fled to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave.
The US House of Representatives approved a $26 billion aid package on Saturday that includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza, which experts say is on the brink of famine, as well as billions for Israel. The US Senate could pass the package as soon as Tuesday, and President Joe Biden has promised to sign it immediately.
Iran’s foreign minister calls EU sanctions ‘regrettable’
- EU foreign ministers agreed in principle to expand sanctions on Iran by agreeing to extend restrictive measures on Tehran’s weapons exports
DUBAI: European Union sanctions announced following Iran’s attack against Israel are “regrettable” because the country was acting in self-defense, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian posted on X on Tuesday.
Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles on Israel in what it said was retaliation against a suspected Israeli bombing of its embassy compound in Damascus.
On Monday, EU foreign ministers agreed in principle to expand sanctions on Iran by agreeing to extend restrictive measures on Tehran’s weapons exports of any drone or missile to Iranian proxies and Russia.
“It is regrettable to see the EU deciding quickly to apply more unlawful restrictions against Iran just because Iran exercised its right to self-defense in the face of Israel’s reckless aggression,” Amirabdollahian said on X, before calling on the EU to apply sanctions on Israel instead.
More work will need to follow in Brussels to approve a legal framework before the expansion of the sanctions can take effect.
Israel’s Gaza war has negatively impacted human rights, says US report
- Rights issues include credible reports of unlawful killings, enforced disappearances and torture, says report
- Israeli military's conduct has come under scrutiny as its forces have killed over 34,000 in Gaza since Oct. 7
WASHINGTON: The war between Israel and Hamas that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis has had “a significant negative impact” on the human rights situation in the country, the US State Department said in its annual report on Monday.
Significant human rights issues include credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, enforced disappearance, torture and unjustified arrests of journalists among others, said the State Department’s 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
The report added that the Israeli government has taken some credible steps to identify and punish the officials who may have been involved in those abuses.
Israel’s military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health authorities, many of them civilians and children. The Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip has been reduced to a wasteland, and extreme food shortages have prompted fears of famine.
Israel launched its assault in response to a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed.
Rights groups have flagged numerous incidents of civilian harm during the Israeli army’s offensive in Gaza, as well as raised alarm about rising violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Palestinian Health Ministry records show Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 460 Palestinians since Oct. 7. But so far the Biden administration has said it has not found Israel in breach of international law.
Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to its longtime ally. Leftist Democrats and Arab American groups have criticized the Biden administration’s steadfast support for Israel, which they say provides it with a sense of impunity.
But this month, President Joe Biden for the first time threatened to condition support for Israel, and insisted that it take concrete steps to protect humanitarian aid workers and civilians.
Israel’s Gaza war has negatively impacted human rights, says US report
- The Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip has been reduced to a wasteland, and extreme food shortages have prompted fears of famine
WASHINGTON: The war between Israel and Hamas that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis has had “a significant negative impact” on the human rights situation in the country, the US State Department said in its annual report on Monday.
Significant human rights issues include credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, enforced disappearance, torture and unjustified arrests of journalists among others, said the State Department’s 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
The report added that the Israeli government has taken some credible steps to identify and punish the officials who may have been involved in those abuses.
Israel’s military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health authorities, many of them civilians and children. The Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip has been reduced to a wasteland, and extreme food shortages have prompted fears of famine.
Israel launched its assault in response to a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed.
Rights groups have flagged numerous incidents of civilian harm during the Israeli army’s offensive in Gaza, as well as raised alarm about rising violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Palestinian Health Ministry records show Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 460 Palestinians since Oct. 7. But so far the Biden administration has said it has not found Israel in breach of international law.
Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to its longtime ally. Leftist Democrats and Arab American groups have criticized the Biden administration’s steadfast support for Israel, which they say provides it with a sense of impunity.
But this month, President Joe Biden for the first time threatened to condition support for Israel, and insisted that it take concrete steps to protect humanitarian aid workers and civilians.
Nobel laureate urges protest against Iran’s ‘war on women’
- Narges Mohammadi issues plea from Evin prison amid new crackdown by Tehran’s morality police
JEDDAH: Jailed Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi urged Iranians on Monday to protest against the clerical regime’s “war against women” amid a new crackdown forcing women to cover their heads.
Mohammadi, who is being held in Evin prison in Tehran, called on Iranian women to share their stories of arrest and sexual assault at the hands of the authorities.
Iran launched a nationwide operation this month to enforce the wearing of the headscarf. Women have been arrested and taken to police stations by the morality police, and the Farsi hashtag meaning “war against women” has been trending on social media.
“People of Iran, I ask you, artists, intellectuals, workers, teachers, and students ... inside and outside the country to protest against this war against women,” Mohammadi said in a message from inside the prison. “Do not underestimate the power of sharing your experiences. Doing so will expose the misogynistic government and bring it to its knees.” She accused the authorities of bringing “a full-scale war against all women to every street in Iran.”
Mohammadi said she had been joined in jail by Dina Ghalibaf, a journalist and student who was arrested after accusing security forces on social media of putting her in handcuffs and sexually assaulting her during a previous arrest at a metro station. “For years, we have witnessed many women who have endured assault, abuse, and beatings by government agents,” Mohammadi said.
Mohammadi, 52, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year in recognition of her campaign for human rights in Iran, which has led to her spending much of the past two decades in and out of jail. She has been imprisoned since November 2021 and has not seen her husband and twin children, who live in Paris, for several years.
