Turkey: 23 years ago, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK, was arrested

Pauline Jacot 8:26 p.m., February 16, 2022, modified at 8:27 p.m., February 16, 2022

EDITORIAL

In Greece, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Kurdish militants invaded embassies, consulates and took diplomats hostage 23 years ago.

The reason for this uprising?

The arrest of the leader of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party Abdullah Ocalan.

The PKK leader was Turkey's most wanted man.

In February 1999, public enemy number 1 of Ankara was arrested in Nairobi, Kenya, in front of the Greek embassy where Abdullah Ocalan had been hiding for two weeks.

The main architect of the armed struggle since 1984, in eastern Turkey, is escorted by men in black balaclavas, the Turkish secret services, towards the airport.

The private jet flies to Istanbul.

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"In the maquis of Iraqi Kurdistan, Apo, this is the nickname of Ocalan, is a hero", said then Jean-Pierre Montanay, special envoy of Europe 1 in Istanbul.

"Heroes also for the diaspora, which still cherishes the impossible hope of a sovereign country. But here, in Istanbul, where one inhabitant in three is Kurdish, it is difficult to identify with this endless armed struggle, and without results.

Hated by the Turks, the man who founded the PKK in 1978 is held responsible for the 30,000 war dead.

The "child killer", according to Ankara, is a terrorist.

Methods contested in its ranks

Faced with the relentless struggle of the Turks against the Kurds, with torture, massacres and razed villages, Abdullah Ocalan began to lose his credibility, says François Clémenceau: "Ocalan's political methods were contested even in his own ranks. The purges were numerous, and the methods of bringing the diaspora into line were becoming more and more similar to mafia-like behavior. Drug trafficking to buy weapons did not encourage trickery."

A few hours after Ocalan's arrest, the Turkish authorities claim loud and clear that this capture is a solution to the Kurdish problem.

Affirmation immediately discredited in the street first, the Kurds will demonstrate their anger for several days, everywhere in Europe, in France as here in Marseille.

"Ocalan has not stopped pushing Turkey towards a political and peaceful solution to the Kurdish question. One day we will start a new war, everyone will suffer in this war, we will not be the only ones", explained then a Kurd. 

Still detained

And as soon as the capture of Ocalan was announced, the PKK, deprived of its leader, reorganized itself.

The PKK threatens to intensify and extend the war against Turkey.

It is the brother of the Kurdish leader, arrested Monday evening, who takes the direction of the movement.

In a statement, the new leadership of the PKK adds that "from now on, no Turkish official will sleep peacefully at home. You will see him very quickly".

During this time, Abdullah Ocalan was therefore taken to Turkey, he is being held on the island of Imrali, south of Istanbul.

An island that looks like a bunker describes Georges Malbrunot in May 1999, it is the beginning of the trial of the leader of the PKK.

"Ocalan, behind his armored glass cage, was going all out, confessing his mistakes. In a spectacular exercise of repentance, the warlord, on the first day of his trial, called for an end to the armed rebellion ."

But accused of treason and of leading a terrorist movement, Abdullah Ocalan will be sentenced to death, a sentence transformed into life imprisonment thanks to Turkish desires to enter Europe.

He is still imprisoned today on the island of Imrali in the Sea of ​​Marmara.