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Ocalan, Turkey and the Kurds
Turkey's arrest of Abdullah Ocalan sparked a frenzy of protest actions in 16 European cities. Why would thousands of people put their bodies on the line to aid a man wanted for terrorism? The answer may lie in the plight of the Kurds, a people who were denied a state in the redrawing of the maps at the end of World War I.
Who Is Abdullah Ocalan?
He is the head of the Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK), a leftist guerrilla movement that has
waged a bloody battle against Turkey for Kurdish
independence. More than 35,000 people have
been killed since the PKK launched its guerrilla
campaign in 1984. Human rights groups have
criticized both sides for their conduct in the
conflict. Ocalan is now being held in Turkey on
charges of treason and terrorism, after failing in a
three-month quest to find asylum in Europe..
Who Are the Kurds?
The Kurds are a non-Arab, mostly Muslim people
with their own language and culture. They
number some 20 to 25 million, and are
concentrated in a heartland that spans
southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, Iran and parts
of Syria. The Kurds were promised their own
state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which carved
up the Ottoman Empire after its defeat in World
War I. But Turkey subsequently forced a
renegotiation of the treaty, leaving the Kurds as a
nation without a state. Large numbers migrated
across Europe (there are as many as half a
million in Germany alone) and also into the
former Soviet Union.
The Kurds in Turkey
The Kurds are not recognized as a minority in
Turkey, and do not enjoy the same language
rights as other minorities. Turkey's military
government in 1991 lifted a ban on the use of the
Kurdish language in unofficial settings, but it
remains illegal in schools, broadcasts and
politics. Turkey counters criticisms on this score
by insisting that Kurds are fully integrated into
society on an equal basis with Turks, citing as
evidence the Kurdish origins of such mainstream
politicians as the late prime minister Turgut Ozal.
The Kurdish Struggle
Despite decrying their treatment at the hands of
the Turks and Iraqis, the Kurds are far from
unified. Saddam Hussein has previously
exploited violent divisions among rival Kurdish
factions in northern Iraq to maintain control, while
Turkey's Kurdish political groupings are
perennially in conflict. Those conflicts are
reinforced by a history of betrayal and
exploitation of Kurdish movements by the
region's power players -- most recently, Syria
ended its longtime support for Ocalan as a
diplomatic gesture to improve relations with
Turkey.
Ocalan's Flight
Having outlived his usefulness to Syria -- which
had allowed him to use bases in its zone of
influence in Lebanon -- Ocalan was forced to flee
to Russia last October. In November he arrived in
Italy seeking asylum, but having failed to find
sanctuary there he left Rome sometime in
January for an undisclosed destination. His
whereabouts became something of a mystery
after he was turned away from the Netherlands
and reportedly failed to enter Switzerland and
Greece. Before his arrest in Kenya he was
rumored to have been in Belarus under Russian
protection.
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