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Ocalan: Change Movement different from
Kurdish Parties 15.3.2010
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March
15, 2010
Imrali Island,
Turkey, — The Jailed Kurdish leader of the Turkey
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan met
last Sunday with his attorneys.
In a regular fashion he analyzes the political
situation in Kurdistan. About the Iraqi election he
considered the emergence of Gorran (Change) movement
“An important development”. Besides He said ”it is a
step towards changing the (Kurdish) mentality and
the Feudal/tribal culture, Gorran is distinct in
this matter”
In the occasion of Halabja’s Memorial Day, Ocalan
envisaged the occurrence of dozens of other
Halabja’s in Kurdistan, and said: “US will withdraw
from Iraq, in this case Arab countries will try to
submerge the Kurdish federal entity in the South
(Iraqi Kurdistan), they (Kurdish leaders) should
know this threat, and even greater threats loom on
the horizon. It might be ten times the magnitude of
Halabja. |
Jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, the only
prisoner for a decade on the Imrali Island in the Turkish Sea of
Marmara. |
There is a possibility of a major preemptive strike
to cleanse Iraqi Kurdistan, Barzani and Talabani
must take these issues seriously”.
Gorran emerged in regional elections last year as a
rival to the two main ruling Kurdish parties and won
25 seats in the parliament. Gorran is challenging
Talabani's PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan), and
the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party),www.ekurd.netof regional
president Massoud Barzani and accuses the parties of
corruption. It’s headed by the former senior PUK-leader
Nawshirwan Mustafa, who was Talabani’s deputy until
2007.
Abdullah Ocalan
Ocalan, 61, is the founder of the outlawed Turkey
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which took up arms
for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of
Turkey (Turkey-Kurdistan). Ocalan had been forced
from his long-time home in Syria by Turkish pressure
in 1998, embarked on an odyssey through several
European countries and ended up in the residence of
the Greek ambassador in Nairobi. He was on his way
from there to the airport on Feb 15 1999 when he was
arrested by Turkish agents and put on a plane to
Turkey.
Following the arrest, violent protests by Kurds
erupted all over Europe. Ocalan was put on trial on
the heavily guarded prison island of Imrali in the
Sea of Marmara near Istanbul and sentenced to death.
His sentence was later commuted to life in prison,www.ekurd.net
after Turkey
abolished the death penalty in 2002. Ocalan was the
only prisoner for a decade until new prisoners
arrived on November 2009, after the Council of
Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) criticised Ankara for violating
Ocalan's human rights by keeping him in solitary
confinement. He is allowed only visits from
close relatives and his lawyers.
“Ocalan has a high symbolic value for some Kurds,”
Nihat Ali Ozcan, an expert on Kurdish militants at
the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey,
or TEPAV.
Source: Livin Press, translation by Radio
Curdonia, additional
report by ekurd net
Copyright, respective
author or news agency,
Livin Press, Radio Curdonia | curdonia
com | ekurd net
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