Abdullah Öcalan

Abdullah Öcalan (born April 4, 1948, Ömerli, Turkey) is the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant Kurdish nationalist organization, who became widely known as the strongest advocate for Kurdish sovereignty. As the PKK’s leader, Öcalan was also labeled a hero by some Kurds, a terrorist by most international intelligence agencies, and an enemy of the state by the government of Turkey (Türkiye). Öcalan, whose surname means “avenger” in Turkish, is usually referred to by the nickname “Apo,” Kurdish for “uncle.” In February 2025, following months of discussions with Turkish officials, Öcalan called for the PKK to end its armed struggle and disband.

Early life, activism, and militancy

Öcalan was born to a peasant family in a village in southeastern Turkey. He had vague political aspirations as a youngster. He tried to enter the Turkish military but was refused, a decision he later claimed was related to his Kurdish ancestry. Öcalan went on to enroll at Ankara University, where he studied political science and first began to embrace Marxism and to voice left-wing sentiments. He organized student movements and was jailed for distributing leftist brochures. He then dropped out of Ankara University and returned to southeastern Turkey, where he began to advocate for an independent Kurdish state.

In 1977 Öcalan and two comrades wrote a manifesto, “The National Road to the Kurdish Revolution.” This document would become the blueprint for the PKK. In 1979 unrest in Turkey forced Öcalan and some of his associates to flee to Syria, where they began training the guerrillas that formed the core of the PKK. In August 1984 the PKK began its armed campaign for a Kurdish state with an attack on a pro-government village in southeastern Turkey.

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Öcalan’s leadership of the PKK from 1984 to 1999 resulted in heavy bloodshed for the PKK and Turkey. He is alleged to have ordered the murder of large numbers of civilians, the kidnapping of Western tourists, and the murder of many comrades who challenged his beliefs.

Imprisonment

In 1999 Öcalan was apprehended in Kenya and taken back to Turkey, where he was tried and sentenced to death for treason and sedition. On the day he was sentenced, there were riots and demonstrations by Kurds in Turkey and in various European countries. Öcalan appealed for the death sentence to be overturned and announced a ceasefire, ordering all PKK forces to leave Turkey. In February 2002 the PKK officially foreswore its 15-year insurrection and agreed to follow a peaceful political program.

In October 2002 Turkey commuted Öcalan’s sentence to life in prison as a result of the country’s abolition of the death penalty; at that time Turkey was bringing its laws in line with the requirements of the European Union. In 2003 the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, found that Öcalan’s 1999 trial was unfair, claiming that his defense was improperly restricted. Turkey appealed the ruling, but in 2005 the court upheld the ruling and recommended a retrial, which Turkey refused to hold.

Many believed that Öcalan’s imprisonment would end the PKK, but that was not the case. The PKK called off its ceasefire and resumed attacks in 2004. Secret peace talks between Turkish officials and PKK leaders began in 2009 but collapsed in 2011. In late 2012 the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced that Turkish officials had begun negotiations with the imprisoned Öcalan. In March 2013 Öcalan called a ceasefire, and PKK guerrilla forces began to withdraw from Turkey. As peace talks faltered, however, the ceasefire ended in July 2015, though Öcalan continued to advocate for a negotiated agreement to bring about Kurdish autonomy within Turkey.

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In October 2024 Turkish officials signaled an openness to ending the fight against the PKK and its supporters if the PKK agreed to disband, and they soon afterward loosened their isolation of Öcalan in prison. The gesture came at a time when the Turkish government sought to shore up support at home and focus on instability in its regional neighborhood. Moreover, the toppling in December of Bashar al-Assad in Syria by Turkish-backed rebels placed greater pressure on the Kurds in both Turkey and Syria to resolve tensions with Turkey. On February 27, 2025, following a series of discussions between him, Turkish officials, and pro-Kurdish representatives in the Turkish government, Öcalan issued a historic statement calling on the PKK to disarm and disband. Read aloud on national television, Öcalan’s call to disband indicated that greater freedoms of expression and identity in Turkey had rendered the PKK redundant in light of the recent political opening.