The odyssey of the Kurd leader Abdullah Ocalan, 50, came to an end when the Turkish Secret Service arrested him on February 16th in Nairobi, Kenya. Greatly satisfied, the Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit was triumphant when he announced the success of the operation: "Our intelligence, the army and the institutions have done an excellent job. Allah bless all of them !"
The New York Times reported that the Turkish government has had decisive support from the US Government, which also exercised pressure on some European governments to prevent them from giving political asylum to the Kurdish terrorist. Thus, after being expelled from Italy on January 16th, Ocalan traveled for an entire month between various European nations. His search for shelter and safe exile took him from Italy to Russia and some other republic of the former Soviet Union, then to Greece and the Netherlands and back to the Greek island of Korfu. When even the Greeks, Turkey's eternal antagonists, refused to protect him, he was forced to go to Kenya. Here the PKK-leader was for some time guest of the Greek ambassador, who tried to find him a haven in some other European nation. But when Ocalan left the residence at last, heading for the Nairobi airport, he was captured by the Turks.
The Kurd leader, who is held responsible for 30.000 Turks killed during his 15-year guerrilla war against Ankara, was immediately transferred to a high security prison island in the Marmara Sea near Istanbul. All Turkish TV stations transmitted triumphant images of the humiliated prisoner. The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet announced that the process will begin in April. A sentence could already be expected by the end of May. The prime minister Ecevit said that in this case, due to the kind of accusations, it would be difficult to exclude the death penalty.
Reaction on the part of the Kurdish minorities spread all over Europe and the Middle East did not await. In all major European cities, such as Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, Rome, Milan, Athens, Stockholm, Zurich and Rotterdam, Kurdish immigrants protested against the kidnapping of their leader. In Berlin four Kurds were killed by Israeli security guards when they demonstrated in front of the Israeli Embassy. In many cases young fanatic Kurds torched themselves to protest against the evil fate of their nation. In the German town of Hechingen a 17-year-old girl is between life and death since she set herself on fire. Yet, her father and her family are proud of her sacrifice to her ill-treated nation.
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