Fury erupts across Europe after capture of Abdullah Ocalan

The volcanic eruption of fury across Europe following Abdullah Ocalan’s capture in Nairobi illustrated the devotion in which he was held by Kurds.

He was seen as the man who would free them from their status as an oppressed minority in various countries in the Middle East and force the creation of an independent Kurdistan state.

The reaction of Amin Aram, a Kurdish refugee in Germany, was typical: ‘‘Every one of us, without exception, is angry,’’ he told the New York Times.

‘’The American Government says Ocalan is a terrorist. But my family was called terrorists by Saddam Hussein just because we are Kurds. Then he killed my mother, three brothers and two sisters in a chemical-weapons attack on the town of Halabja. Whatever group we are from, we cannot accept Ocalan’s arrest.’’

Ocalan was born in Turkey in 1948 to peasant parents. He became involved in politics while studying political science at Ankara University, and set up the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (known by its Turkish acronym PKK) with fellow students.

In September 1980, he launched an armed campaign for the secession of the Kurdish dominated provinces of Turkey. Tens of thousands of PKK guerrillas took on the Turkish army, according to a BBC profile of Ocalan. More than 30,000 people were killed including soldiers, guerrillas and civilians.

At the height of the PKK’s struggle in 1992, Ocalan pledged: “Even if 100,000 people die this year, our movement cannot be disrupted.” In the years before his capture in Nairobi, he changed his approach and called for negotiations.

When he was forced out of his long-term base in Syria, he fled to Europe, announcing that he wanted to transform the PKK from a military to a political organisation. He criticised what he described as extremist actions by elements within the PKK.

His comments fuelled existing rumours about splits within the PKK, some of whose commanders were said to be unhappy with Ocalan’s dictatorial methods. By the time he arrived in Nairobi, the PKK was weakened and divided. His capture united Kurds in outrage.

It also caused political upheaval in Kenya. President Moi used the Ocalan debacle as an excuse to effect major changes in government. He sacked police commissioner Duncan Wachira and the head of immigration, Frank Kwinga.

But he also effected wider changes in the Cabinet, most notably demoting Simeon Nyachae from the Finance ministry to the ministry of Industrial Development. Mr Nyachae resigned rather than take up the less glamorous docket.

His resignation triggered outrage, with opposition leader Mwai Kibaki saying Mr Moi had used the Ocalan debacle as an excuse to sack Mr Nyachae because of his efforts to fight corruption.

The capture of Ocalan also drew protests from members of the civil society who said Kenya had erred by allowing the arrest of a man who was viewed by millions of Kurds as a liberation hero despite Turkish charges he was a terrorist.

Writing in the Sunday Nation, Kenya Human Rights Commission officials Willy Mutunga and Mugambi Kiai accused the government of moral bankruptcy.

“The Kenyan Government is said to have paid exorbitant bills in a posh Nairobi hotel for the late Somali dictator Siad Barre when he was deposed. The same government granted Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam safe passage to Zimbabwe when he was deposed.

So why treat Kurdish freedom fighter Ocalan differently? Is he not the legitimate leader of the Kurdish Workers’ Party that is waging a decades long campaign for self-determination and liberation as a separate state?

Is Ocalan worse than either Barre or Mengistu or is it that Kenya’s foreign policy has changed? Do we have a foreign policy at all?” The protests across the world were not sufficient to get Ocalan released by the Turkish authorities.

Fair trial

He was put on trial in Turkey amid charges that he could not get a fair trial. One of his lawyers quit the case due to death threats against his family while another was investigated for links to the PKK.

The death sentence handed down at the end of the trial was no surprise. The EU ruled that his trial had not been fair and, under intense international pressure, Turkey commuted the sentence to life in prison.

Ocalan is serving his term in Ýmralý Island in the Turkish Sea of Marmara but his dream of an independent Kurdistan is yet to be realised.