Abdulla Odzhalan Founder and leader of the largest Kurdish rebel organization - the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Country: Turkey

1. Abdullah Ocalan: Founder and Leader of the Kurdish Workers' Party
2. Exile and Arrest
3. The Struggle for Kurdish Rights

Abdullah Ocalan: Founder and Leader of the Kurdish Workers' Party

Abdullah Ocalan was born into a peasant family in the village of Omerli, located in a Kurdish-populated region on the Turkish-Syrian border. During his studies at Ankara University, where he majored in political science, Ocalan became acquainted with left-radical ideas that were prominent in the tumultuous 1970s. In 1978, while still a student, he founded the left-radical Kurdish Workers' Party (KWP). The KWP soon transformed into a militant organization engaged in active guerrilla activities.

Exile and Arrest

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Ocalan directed operations from Syria, which provided refuge to numerous terrorists during that time. However, in the autumn of 1998, under pressure from Turkey, Syria expelled Ocalan. After spending a period in Russia, Ocalan was forced to flee to Italy, from where he flew to Kenya and sought refuge in the Greek embassy. His three-month journey came to an end when he was arrested by Turkish intelligence agencies on Kenyan soil. Ocalan was subsequently brought to trial in Turkey, where he was charged with treason, terrorism, and the deaths of 37,000 people. He was sentenced to death, but his sentence was later commuted.

The Struggle for Kurdish Rights

Ocalan's motivation for leading the struggle stems from the need to counter Turkey's desire to assimilate ethnic minorities. The Kurdish struggle is aimed at asserting their right to self-identification and fighting against national oppression and genocide. According to Ocalan, the KWP is not a separatist group seeking the division of the country. Their goal is the federalization of Turkey or the granting of autonomy to the Kurds. While formerly a communist Marxist organization, the KWP distanced itself from doctrinal Marxism in the 1990s, creatively adapting its ideology to Kurdish realities. Ocalan rejects communism as it destroys individuality. He states, "We have our own political manifesto, essentially humanistic, challenging inequality and injustice not only among nations but also among cultures, religions, and sexes. Our socialism is not of the totalitarian type. We are oriented towards a philosophy based on democracy and pluralism, rather than state power. We endorse the synthesis of capitalism and socialism, an economic structure in which people will develop freely. We are against all ideologies that defend the absolute power of the state at the expense of individual freedom."