Ocalan offers peace after decade in jail

ISTANBUL, Friday

Pacing his prison island cell, guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan has had a decade to ponder his “road map” to solve Turkey’s Kurdish problem and end a conflict which his militants launched a quarter of a century ago.

But the plan which has thrust him back into the spotlight, set to be unveiled in August, reflects transformation in Turkey more than a change of heart in Ocalan, who led the Kurdistan Workers Party’s (PKK) violent insurgency until his 1999 capture.

Ever since he was sentenced to death for treason that year, blamed for a conflict which has killed 40,000, the stocky, moustachioed 61-year-old has said the PKK is ready to disarm if Turkey is prepared for talks. The killing has continued.

“He is seeing if he can play a role as a facilitator. He is not demanding to be accepted as a partner in talks,” said Ocalan’s lawyer Irfan Dundar, a regular visitor to the jail where he is the sole inmate on Imrali island in the Marmara Sea.

Ocalan’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2002 when the death penalty was abolished, but there is widespread hatred for a man often described as a “baby killer” and “butcher”.

Reduced capacity

In a plain cell housing a bed, shower, toilet and desk, Ocalan spends his time reading books on history and philosophy. In his one-hour weekly visits from his lawyers, he talks of topical issues, such as the recent Iranian elections.

Beyond his prison walls, the bloodshed has continued, with the PKK launching attacks on the military and bombings in Turkish cities.

Turkish warplane raids on its bases in the last two years have reduced the capacity of the PKK, regarded as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. (Reuters)