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Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan (/ˈoʊdʒəlɑːn/ OH-jə-lahn; Turkish: [œdʒaɫan]; born 4 April 1948 or 1949), also known as Apo (short for Abdullah in Turkish; Kurdish for "uncle"), is a founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Öcalan was based in Syria from 1979 to 1998. He helped found the PKK in 1978, and led it into the Kurdish–Turkish conflict in 1984. For most of his leadership, he was based in Syria, which provided sanctuary to the PKK until the late 1990s.
After being forced to leave Syria, Öcalan was abducted by the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in Nairobi, Kenya in February 1999 and imprisoned on İmralı island in Turkey, where after a trial he was sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed organizations. The sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment when Turkey abolished the death penalty. From 1999 until 2009, he was the sole prisoner in İmralı prison in the Sea of Marmara, where he is still held.
Öcalan has advocated for a political solution to the conflict since the 1993 Kurdistan Workers' Party ceasefire. Öcalan's prison regime has oscillated between long periods of isolation during which he is allowed no contact with the outside world, and periods when he is permitted visits. He was also involved in negotiations with the Turkish government that led to a temporary Kurdish–Turkish peace process in 2013. In February 2025, he issued a statement from prison calling on the PKK to disarm and disband itself, after which the group's leadership declared a unilateral ceasefire.
From prison, Öcalan has published several books. Jineology, also known as the science of women, is a form of feminism advocated by Öcalan and subsequently a fundamental tenet of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK). Öcalan's philosophy of democratic confederalism is applied in the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), an autonomous polity formed in Syria in 2012.
Öcalan was born in Ömerli, a village in the Halfeti district of Şanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey. Ömerli had a diverse population of Kurds, Turks, and Armenians, who were all integrated among each other. Öcalan claimed that his father was Kurdish, while his mother was Turkmen. Öcalan's maternal grandmother was a known Turk. While some sources report his date of birth as 4 April 1949, no official birth records exist. He has claimed not to know exactly when he was born, estimating the year to be 1946 or 1947. He is the oldest of seven children. Öcalan's father was poor even by local standards, and he once said that there was "always fighting" and "an overwhelming unhappiness" in his family.
When asked about their ethnic origin, his younger brother Osman Öcalan stated that their paternal family was fully Kurdish, while their maternal family was of mixed Kurdish, Turkish, Arab, and Assyrian origins. While Abdullah Öcalan claimed that their mother was fully Turkmen, Osman Öcalan disputed it, stating that many Albanian and other Balkan migrants were imported to the region by the Ottomans and identified as Turks, although he did not fully dismiss the possibility of their mother being Turkish. When asked about their surname, Osman Öcalan stated that "öc" meant "revenge" in Turkish, and that after Ottoman Turkish authorities came to their village and demanded women, his paternal grandfather Hüseyin Ağa refused and began fighting the Ottomans, during which his younger brother Abdi Ağa was killed. After the death of Abdi Ağa, Hüseyin Ağa led more revenge attacks on the Ottomans and drove them away. The family was celebrated by other Kurds and known as "Mala Ocê" ("House of Revenge"). After the Surname Law, the surname was Turkified to "Öcalan", meaning "revengeful".
Abdullah Öcalan spoke only Kurdish until elementary school, which he attended in a neighboring village. After he began school, he learned Turkish and began assimilating. He was impacted by Turkish nationalist school curriculum and dreamed of joining the Turkish army when he grew up. He applied to a military high school for future commissioned officers, but had failed the admission exam. Rejected from the military high school, Öcalan enrolled in a vocational high school in Ankara (Turkish: Ankara Tapu-Kadastro Meslek Lisesi) in 1966. During high school, he attended anti-communist meetings, and occasionally Pro-Kurdish meetings set up by left-wing circles. Öcalan did not think about his Kurdish identity in a political way until he was nearly 20 years old. Öcalan was also a very conservative Muslim in his youth and admired Necip Fazıl Kısakürek. After graduating in 1969, Öcalan began working at the Title Deeds Office of Diyarbakır. It was at this time his political affiliation began to reform. He was relocated one year later to Istanbul where he participated in the meetings of the Revolutionary Cultural Eastern Hearths (DDKO), a Kurdish organization. Later, he entered the Istanbul Law Faculty but after the first year transferred to Ankara University to study political science.
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Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan (/ˈoʊdʒəlɑːn/ OH-jə-lahn; Turkish: [œdʒaɫan]; born 4 April 1948 or 1949), also known as Apo (short for Abdullah in Turkish; Kurdish for "uncle"), is a founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Öcalan was based in Syria from 1979 to 1998. He helped found the PKK in 1978, and led it into the Kurdish–Turkish conflict in 1984. For most of his leadership, he was based in Syria, which provided sanctuary to the PKK until the late 1990s.
After being forced to leave Syria, Öcalan was abducted by the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in Nairobi, Kenya in February 1999 and imprisoned on İmralı island in Turkey, where after a trial he was sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed organizations. The sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment when Turkey abolished the death penalty. From 1999 until 2009, he was the sole prisoner in İmralı prison in the Sea of Marmara, where he is still held.
Öcalan has advocated for a political solution to the conflict since the 1993 Kurdistan Workers' Party ceasefire. Öcalan's prison regime has oscillated between long periods of isolation during which he is allowed no contact with the outside world, and periods when he is permitted visits. He was also involved in negotiations with the Turkish government that led to a temporary Kurdish–Turkish peace process in 2013. In February 2025, he issued a statement from prison calling on the PKK to disarm and disband itself, after which the group's leadership declared a unilateral ceasefire.
From prison, Öcalan has published several books. Jineology, also known as the science of women, is a form of feminism advocated by Öcalan and subsequently a fundamental tenet of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK). Öcalan's philosophy of democratic confederalism is applied in the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), an autonomous polity formed in Syria in 2012.
Öcalan was born in Ömerli, a village in the Halfeti district of Şanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey. Ömerli had a diverse population of Kurds, Turks, and Armenians, who were all integrated among each other. Öcalan claimed that his father was Kurdish, while his mother was Turkmen. Öcalan's maternal grandmother was a known Turk. While some sources report his date of birth as 4 April 1949, no official birth records exist. He has claimed not to know exactly when he was born, estimating the year to be 1946 or 1947. He is the oldest of seven children. Öcalan's father was poor even by local standards, and he once said that there was "always fighting" and "an overwhelming unhappiness" in his family.
When asked about their ethnic origin, his younger brother Osman Öcalan stated that their paternal family was fully Kurdish, while their maternal family was of mixed Kurdish, Turkish, Arab, and Assyrian origins. While Abdullah Öcalan claimed that their mother was fully Turkmen, Osman Öcalan disputed it, stating that many Albanian and other Balkan migrants were imported to the region by the Ottomans and identified as Turks, although he did not fully dismiss the possibility of their mother being Turkish. When asked about their surname, Osman Öcalan stated that "öc" meant "revenge" in Turkish, and that after Ottoman Turkish authorities came to their village and demanded women, his paternal grandfather Hüseyin Ağa refused and began fighting the Ottomans, during which his younger brother Abdi Ağa was killed. After the death of Abdi Ağa, Hüseyin Ağa led more revenge attacks on the Ottomans and drove them away. The family was celebrated by other Kurds and known as "Mala Ocê" ("House of Revenge"). After the Surname Law, the surname was Turkified to "Öcalan", meaning "revengeful".
Abdullah Öcalan spoke only Kurdish until elementary school, which he attended in a neighboring village. After he began school, he learned Turkish and began assimilating. He was impacted by Turkish nationalist school curriculum and dreamed of joining the Turkish army when he grew up. He applied to a military high school for future commissioned officers, but had failed the admission exam. Rejected from the military high school, Öcalan enrolled in a vocational high school in Ankara (Turkish: Ankara Tapu-Kadastro Meslek Lisesi) in 1966. During high school, he attended anti-communist meetings, and occasionally Pro-Kurdish meetings set up by left-wing circles. Öcalan did not think about his Kurdish identity in a political way until he was nearly 20 years old. Öcalan was also a very conservative Muslim in his youth and admired Necip Fazıl Kısakürek. After graduating in 1969, Öcalan began working at the Title Deeds Office of Diyarbakır. It was at this time his political affiliation began to reform. He was relocated one year later to Istanbul where he participated in the meetings of the Revolutionary Cultural Eastern Hearths (DDKO), a Kurdish organization. Later, he entered the Istanbul Law Faculty but after the first year transferred to Ankara University to study political science.
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