page_title: Abdullah Öcalan
hierarchical_section_title: Abdullah Öcalan
caption_attribution_description: English: Abdullah Öcalan, founder of the PKK.
context_page_description: Abdullah Öcalan, also known as Apo, is a Kurdish leftist political theoretician, political prisoner and one of the founding members of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party.
  Öcalan helped found the PKK in 1978, and led it into the Kurdish-Turkish conflict in 1984. His leadership style was often ruthless, and many of his opponents in the PKK were killed on his orders. For most of his leadership, he was based in Syria, which provided sanctuary to the PKK until the late 1990s.
  After being forced to leave Syria, Öcalan was abducted in Nairobi in 1999 by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency and taken to Turkey, where he was sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed organisations. The sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment when Turkey abolished the death penalty. From 1999 until 2009, he was the sole prisoner on İmralı Island, in the Sea of Marmara.
  Öcalan now argues that the period of armed warfare is past and a political solution to the Kurdish question should be developed.
context_section_description: Abdullah Öcalan (/ˈoʊdʒəlɑːn/ OH-jə-lahn; Turkish: [œdʒaɫan]; born 4 April 1949), also known as Apo (short for both Abdullah and "uncle" in Kurdish), is a Kurdish leftist political theoretician, political prisoner and one of the founding members of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
  Öcalan helped found the PKK in 1978, and led it into the Kurdish-Turkish conflict in 1984. His leadership style was often ruthless, and many of his opponents in the PKK were killed on his orders. For most of his leadership, he was based in Syria, which provided sanctuary to the PKK until the late 1990s.
  After being forced to leave Syria, Öcalan was abducted in Nairobi in 1999 by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) (with the support of the CIA) and taken to Turkey, where he was sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed organisations. The sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment when Turkey abolished the death penalty. From 1999 until 2009, he was the sole prisoner on İmralı Island, in the Sea of Marmara.
  Öcalan now argues that the period of armed warfare is past and a political solution to the Kurdish question should be developed. Öcalan's prison regime has oscillated between long periods of isolation during which he is allowed no contact with the outside world, and periods when he is permitted visits. In 2012, he was involved in negotiations with the Turkish government that led to the Kurdish–Turkish peace process.
  From prison, Öcalan has published several books. Jineology, also known as the science of women, is a form of feminism advocated by Öcalan and subsequently a fundamental tenet of the Kurdistan Communities Union. Öcalan's philosophy of democratic confederalism is a strong influence on the political structures of Rojava, an autonomous polity formed in Syria in 2011.
caption: Öcalan in 1997
exif: {}