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Al-Ahram Weekly 3 - 9 June 1999 Issue No. 432 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 3 - 9 June 1999 Issue No. 432
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Interview Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Ocalan humbled and set to hang
By Gareth Jenkins
No one in Turkey doubts that Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan will be found guilty and sentenced to death at the end of his trial which opened Monday amid tight security measures. The only question is whether the sentence will be carried out.
Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan sits behind bulletproof glass between Turkish soldiers during the first day of his trial on the prison island of Imrali on Monday (photo: AP)
The 139-page indictment accuses Ocalan of treason, separatism and direct responsibility for the deaths of nearly 10,000 civilians and members of the security forces killed in PKK attacks.
The trial, in front of a specially convened State Security Court, is being conducted in a converted cinema on the prison-island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara, some 60 kilometres south of Istanbul. Observers at the trial are ferried to Imrali daily from Mudanya on the mainland where diplomats and over 800 journalists, 260 of them foreign, mingle with the chanting, weeping, relatives of those slain by the PKK. The atmosphere is something between a carnival and a funeral wake.
"I don't want anything for myself or my child," said Nergiz Kolcu, whose son was killed by the PKK while doing his military service. "If Ocalan is executed my boy will not come back but I just don't want any more people to die or any more mothers to cry ; the law is clear Ocalan has to die."
When Ocalan appeared in court on Monday protected from potential assassins in the custom-built bullet-proof glass dock, he did not even try to deny the charges listed in the indictment. Clean-shaven and dressed in an open-neck powder blue shirt and dark green jacket, Ocalan was visibly thinner than when he was brought to Turkey from Kenya in mid-February. Shuffling his feet and speaking in a low, barely audible monotone, he appeared contrite, almost humble. It was a stunning contrast to the fatigue-clad guerrilla leader who would deliver impassioned speeches to PKK militants in training camps in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley before sending them to fight and die in Turkey.
Significantly Ocalan never saw combat himself. "I share the grief of the families of those slain by the PKK and I apologise" Ocalan told the court. "I promise that from now on I will work for the establishment of peace. I am ready to serve the Turkish State and I believe that, for this end, I must remain alive." Ocalan promised that if the court were to spare his life he could put an end to the fighting within three months and bring the militants down from the mountains of southeastern Turkey where they have been waging a 15 year old war for Kurdish political and cultural autonomy.
On the second day of his trial on Tuesday, Ocalan confirmed Ankara's allegations that the PKK enjoyed considerable foreign support, particularly from Syria where Ocalan lived when he was not in the PKK camps in the Syrian controlled Bekaa valley or in Greece. He admitted that "they (the Syrians) didn't try to hinder our activities and some of our members did receive training in Greece." He also revealed that the PKK received considerable support from Iran, Libya and Cyprus.
Before the trial there was speculation that the Turkish authorities would attempt to strike a deal with Ocalan under which he would publicly detail foreign support for the PKK in return for an indefinite postponement of the implementation of any death sentence.
In fact, the Turkish authorities appear to be trying to ensure that the trial is as open and fair as possible, well aware that, with the outcome a virtual foregone conclusion, it is the Turkish judicial system as much as Ocalan that is on trial. Even the judges have been painstakingly polite when speaking with Ocalan, who is routinely vilified in the Turkish press as "baby-killer" and "vampire".
Under Turkish law any death sentence has to be ratified by the Turkish parliament before it can be implemented. Caretaker Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has repeatedly declared that, in principle, his party is opposed to capital punishment. But even though there is considerable evidence of killings and human rights abuses committed both by PKK commanders in the field and by elements in the Turkish security forces, particularly the paramilitary police units known as Special Teams, most Turks hold Ocalan personally responsible. If his death sentence comes before parliament for ratification, it will be very difficult for any MP to vote to commute it to a life sentence.
Ocalan's only hope is that parliamentary ratification is indefinitely delayed. Last Friday (28 May) however, Ecevit's Democratic Left Party (DLP) agreed coalition terms with the ultra nationalist National Movement Party (NMP) and the conservative Motherland Party (MP). In the campaign for the 18 April general elections the NMP repeatedly promised that Ocalan would be hanged.
Last Sunday, on the eve of Ocalan's trial, NMP chairman Devlet Bahceli, who will be deputy prime minister in the new coalition government, was asked whether Ocalan would hang. "God willing" Bahceli responded.
