Abdullah Öcalan

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## Abdullah Öcalan

### Alias

Apo
Hairy Donkey
Mountain Bear
Chick Hicks
The Baby Killer

### Occupation

Founder and leader of terrorist organization PKK

### Powers / Skills

Propaganda
Planning
Making terrorist attacks

### Goals

To establish the Kurdistan State
To avoid his crimes (all failed)

### Crimes

Genocide
Mass murder (inc. child murder)
Serial murder
Attempted uxoricide
Attempted usurpation
High treason
Terrorism
Founding and leading a terrorist organization
War crimes
Warmongering
Arms trafficking
Human trafficking
Drug trafficking
Crimes against humanity
Crimes against peace
Human rights violations
Mass arson
Mass destruction
Mass property damage
Mass kidnapping
Mass unlawful imprisonment
Mass torture
Mass hostage taking
Serial bombing
Abuse of power
Extortion
Serial theft
Money laundering
Invasion
Child abuse
Physical and psychological abuse
Domestic abuse
Rape
Sexual harrasment
Coercion
Illegal border crossing
Document forgery
Assault and battery
Blackmail
Homophobia
Misogyny
Propaganda
Hate crimes
Hate speech
Anti-semitism
Anarchy
Incitement to violance
Mutilations
Sabotage
Enforced suicide
Conspiracy
Fraud
Treachery
Incrimination
Incitement to terrorism
Death threats

### Type of Villain

Jingoistic War Criminal and Terrorist Leader

✔*"For peace and brotherhood at the axis of a democratic republic, I am ready to serve the Turkish State, and I believe that for this end I must remain alive."*

~Abdullah Öcalan

**Abdullah Öcalan** (April 4th 1948/1949 - ) also known as **Apo** (short for both Abdullah and "uncle" in Kurdish) is a Kurdish terrorist leader. He is one of the founding members of separatist terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers' Party. Öcalan was arrested in 1999 by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) with the support of the CIA 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 organisations. 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 İmralı Island.

He was accused of being responsible for the deaths of 30,000 people. From 1978 until his capture in 1999, 4,472 civilians , 3,874 soldiers, 1,225 village guards and 247 police officers lost their lives as a result of incidents carried out by the PKK, of which he was the leader; There were 6,036 armed attacks, 3,071 bomb attacks, 388 armed robberies and 1,046 people were kidnapped.

## Biography

Abdullah Öcalan was born on April 4, 1948/1949 (no official birth records for him exist, and he himself claims not to know exactly when he was born and the card he was given during his university years says 1951) in Ömerli, a village in Halfeti, Şanlıurfa to Ömer and Üveyş Öcalan. He is the oldest of seven children. According to some sources, Öcalan's grandmother was an ethnic Turk and he claimed during his arrest his mother was also an ethnic Turk.

He wanted to be a soldier in his childhood. However, when he could not pass the military high school exam, he studied at Anatolian Land Registry and Cadastre Vocational High School in Ankara between 1966-69 and graduated from there. Öcalan, who was a conservative student during his high school years; He often went to Maltepe Mosque and prayed, participated in anti-communist activities, and went to the meetings of Necip Fazıl Kısakürek and the meetings of Refik Korkut organized by the Anti-Communism Association. He worked as a cadastral officer in Diyarbakır from July 1969 until October 1970.  From his post in Diyarbakır, he was appointed to the Bakırköy Land Registration Directorate and came to Istanbul. In 1971, he enrolled in İstanbul University Faculty of Law. Öcalan transferred to Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences in the same year.

During his university years, he became interested in communist views and joined far-left groups. During these years, he was also interested in THKP/C (a communist terrorist organization). On March 31, 1972, he distributed the Dawn Declaration published by the Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey, led by Doğu Perinçek, at the SBF. He was detained in April 1972 for the crime of distributing this declaration and was detained in Mamak Military Prison for seven months.  In 1973, he started organizing political meetings in a house he rented with his friends in Ankara. In 1974, he founded the Ankara Democratic Higher Education Association with a group of students. Founded in Ankara, the association moved to Southeastern Anatolia in a short time and carried out propaganda activities among young people in the region. Among the founders of the association, there were names such as Cemil Bayık, Duran Kalkan, Rıza Altun, Mustafa Karasu, Kemal Pir, Mazlum Doğan, Haki Karer and Mehmet Hayri Durmuş. The association was closed in 1975 due to communism propaganda.

Öcalan married to Kesire Yıldırım, who was previously engaged to a friend, on 24 May 1978 in Ankara. They separated in the early 1980s. In 1988, Yıldırım, who worked for the PKK in Athens, disappeared after failing in her attempt to overthrow Öcalan. It is claimed that she was paid a salary in exchange for her silence. There are claims that they divorced in 1988, or that they were never officially divorced.

## Foundation of Kurdistan Workers' Party

On 27 November 1978 in Fis village of Lice district of Diyarbakır 22 people attended to meeting, and two people did not come even though they stated that they would attend. Öcalan was elected as the general secretary and leader of the seven-person party administration. Of the 22 people who participated or stated that they would participate, seven were later killed on Öcalan's orders, five, including his wife Kesire Yıldırım, were declared traitors but managed to escape, five were questioned by the administration, two committed suicide in prison, and one was killed by Celal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

After Turkish law enforcement officers arrested PKK members in Elazığ in May 1979, Öcalan walked across the border with the help of a smuggler and crossed into Syria in July 1979 and remained in Syria, except for two short trips to Europe. In the summer of 1980, Öcalan sent a message asking the militants to join him in Syria and began to manage the organization's actions from there he was deported by the government in October 1998.

## Capture and trial

Turkish government criticised Syria over its support for the PKK. As a result, the Syrian government forced Öcalan to leave the country, but did not turn him over to the Turkish authorities. Öcalan went to Russia first and from there moved to various countries, including Italy and Greece.

Öcalan was captured in Kenya on 15 February 1999, while being transferred from the Greek embassy to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, in an operation by the National Intelligence Organization with the help of CIA.

Öcalan, whose trial began on the island of İmralı where he was imprisoned on May 31, 1999, made his defense and admitted that he founded the PKK, that he led and managed the organization, and that the organization continued its activities under his leadership and command until the moment he was captured.

Öcalan was unanimously sentenced to death. The decision was also approved by the 9th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals. In the reasoned decision of the court, Öcalan was punished under Article 59 of the Turkish Penal Code due to the violence, intensity and continuity of his actions and the fact that thousands of people, including babies, children, elderly and women, were killed and posed a serious danger throughout the country. The court's death sentence was approved by the Supreme Court of Appeals on 25 November 1999.

In August 2002, his sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment because the Turkish Grand National Assembly abolished the death penalty within the framework of European Union harmonization laws. Today, he is imprisoned in İmralı Prison.

## Prison Life

From prison Öcalan published several books. Jineology ,also known as women's science, is a form of feminism advocated by Öcalan and later became one of the founding principles of the Kurdistan Communities Union. Since his incarceration, Öcalan has significantly changed his ideology, reading Western social theorists such as Murray Bookchin, Immanuel Wallerstein, Fernand Braudel, fashioned his ideal society as "*Democratic Confederalism*" (drawing heavily on Bookchin's Communalism, and refers to Friedrich Nietzsche as "a prophet". Öcalan's philosophy of democratic confederalism has a strong influence on the political structures of the Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria, an autonomous administration in Syria established in 2012. He also wrote books and articles on the history of pre-capitalist Mesopotamia and Abrahamic religions.

Öcalan has shown renewed cooperation with the Turkish government and hope for a peaceful resolution to three decades of conflict. On March 21st, 2013; Öcalan declared a ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish state. Öcalan's statement was read to hundreds of thousands of Kurds gathered to celebrate the Kurdish New Year and it states, "*Let guns be silenced and politics dominate... a new door is being opened from the process of armed conflict to democratization and democratic politics. It's not the end. It's the start of a new era.*" Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan welcomed the statement and hope for a peaceful settlement has been raised on both sides.

## Quotes

> *"For more than thirty years the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been struggling for the legitimate rights of the Kurdish people. Our struggle, our fight for liberation turned the Kurdish question into an international issue which affected the entire Middle East into an international issue which affected the entire Middle East and brought a solution to the Kurdish question into reach."*
>
>
> *"Some people tell us, "Don't follow the AKP." In fact, the situation is exactly the opposite. AKP is following us. We are dragging the AKP after us."*
>
>
> "*Kurds are brainless."*
>
>
> *"They shout, 'Anatolia will become a grave for Apo.' Now it is our right to explode bombs among them. We can also build a grave for those who call us a grave."*
>
>
>
> *"If there was a God above, he would lead me astray again. God is not for the Kurds either, he confuses the Kurds. The God of the Kurds also leads them to the wrong path. That's why I'm my own god"*
>
>

## Trivia

* Öcalan's brother Osman became a PKK commander, serving until defecting with several others to establish the Patriotic and Democratic Party of Kurdistan. His other brother, Mehmet Öcalan, was a member of the closed pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). His nephew Ömer Öcalan, is a member of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
* Even though far-left groups like Antifa supports him, Öcalan is actually a misogynist and a homophobe. He claims that Kurdish women are cold and smells bad and LGBT is a mental illness.
* Öcalan does not know Kurdish.
* Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç announced that a 42-screen LCD television was placed in Öcalan's prison and he can watch 12 channels by the order of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
* During his trial Öcalan claimed that his first membership was in Grey Wolves.
* Despite his Islamophobic connotations in the past, the First Democratic Islamic Congress was held on 10-11 May 2014 upon Öcalan's call.
* Also despite his misogynistic connotations in the past Öcalan Jineology is a form of feminism advocated by him.