Abdullah Öcalan

Who is Abdullah Öcalan?

Abdullah Öcalan, also known as Apo, is one of the founding members of militant organization Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1978 in Turkey, which is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by a small number of states and organizations, including NATO, the United States and the European Union.

Öcalan was arrested in 1999 by Turkish security forces 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 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 on the İmralı island, in the Sea of Marmara. Öcalan has acknowledged the violent nature of the PKK, but says that the period of armed warfare was defunct 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.