Abdullah Ocalan

About Abdullah Ocalan

Leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant organization that has battled for Jurds' political rights in Turkey. Even while incarcerated, he became a powerful political force.

Abdullah Öcalan, also known as Apo, is a Kurdish nationalist, political prisoner and one of the founding members of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party. 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 in Nairobi in 1999 by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency and taken to Turkey, where 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 on İmralı Island, in the Sea of Marmara, where he is still held. Öcalan has advocated a political solution to the conflict since the 1993 Kurdistan Workers' Party ceasefire.

Relatives	Osman Öcalan (brother), Ömer Öcalan (nephew), Dilek Öcalan (niece)
Organization	Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Koma Civakên Kurdistan (KCK)
Citizenship	Turkey
Occupation	Founder and leader of militant organization PKK, political activist, writer, political theorist
Education	Ankara University, Faculty of Political Science
Born	April 04, 1949, Ömerli, Turkey
Nationality	Kurdish

---

Trivia

He was captured in 1999 and narrowly escaped execution, confined instead to an island prison; and later on he changed his statement from urging war to calling for peace.

Abdullah Ocalan before fame

He became involved in politics during his college years at Ankara University, where he founded the PKK with fellow students in order to create an autonomous Kurdish state within Turkey.

Achievement of Abdullah Ocalan

He was apprehended in 1999 and narrowly avoided execution by being imprisoned on an island; afterwards, he altered his position from advocating for war to advocating for peace.

Salary 2020

Not known

Net Worth 2020

Undisclosed

Abdullah Ocalan family life

He was the son of a poor peasant family in the village of Omerli in the south-eastern region of Turkey.

Associations of Abdullah Ocalan

In 2013, he and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan began preliminary discussions to end their decades-long and violent conflict.

Abdullah Ocalan Height, Weight & Physique Measurements

Weight	in kg - N/A
Height	N/A
Eye Color	N/A
Hair Color	N/A