Born in 1948 in a village in Eastern Turkey, Öcalan studied political science at Ankara University on a state schollarship. This is where he became a Maoist and by 1973 had organized a Maoist group - which initially included Kurdish as well as Turkish militants - whose goal was socialist revolution in Turkey. Was arrested and served 7 months in 1972 for extreme leftist actions.

PKK started out as a terrorist organization and recently due to its failure in the logistic and military fields is trying to maneuver itself towards something resembling a political movement. It's leader Abdullah Öcalan has been recently arrested while trying to illegaly enter Italy with a forged passport.  ow we await the outcome of the extradition requests. Supporters of the organization have as a last resort turned to feeding the media various stories on how PKK is a political entity and not a terror organization. It is true that PKK attacks have weakened in recent times but this is not due to PKK voluntary slow down but to the success of Turkish security forces.

Recently, attitude of DTP (Democratic Society Party) is being discussed so much. Yesterday, another debate appeared. As DTP Sirnak MP Hasip Kaplan was talking about PKK terrorists, he called them as “guerillas” during the meeting of TBMM Planning and Budget Commission.

To figure out whether PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) is a terrorist organization we have to first figure out what terrorism is. What is terrorism? According to its definition we can conclude whether PKK is a terrorist organization or not. From the top of ones head terrorism could be defined as committing of various violent illegal acts which physically or mentally harm the well being of an individual or group of people with the aims of promoting a political or religious ideology.

EU’s second-highest court rules the EU had not properly justified its decision to outlaw the PKK. Experts say the ruling does not mean the PKK’s exclusion from the EU list of terrorist organizations. An EU court annulled yesterday a decision to place the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on the European Union's terror list, but experts said the ruling does not prevent member states from blacklisting the terrorist organization. The Luxembourg-based European Court of First Instance said the decision made by EU governments in 2002 and 2004 to blacklist the PKK and its political wing, Kongra-Gel, and freeze their assets was illegal under EU law.

I repeat here what we wrote in the letter and I am ready to serve whatever criminal punishment it may entail,’ says Osman Baydemir to the court. Fifty six mayors from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) went on trial yesterday in Diyarbakır for aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a charge that carries up to 15 years in prison. The charges against the mayors stem from a letter they sent to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in December, asking him to allow Roj TV, a Denmark-based television station that operates as a mouthpiece for the PKK, to stay on the air, despite Ankara's requests to get it closed down.

On Feb. 13, Frank Urbancic, deputy counter-terrorism coordinator at the U.S. State Department, told CNN-Türk, "The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is like the mafia all over Europe." He added that in addition to its terrorist presence in Europe, the outlawed PKK has an "octopus-like structure carrying out criminal activity, including drug and people smuggling" to raise funds, as well as "fronts that provide cover to the organization's criminal and terror activities."

The terrorist actions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party seemed to have been terminated in 1998 by the Turkish military, which had given an ultimatum to Syria after being disappointed with how the politicians were handling the situation, and thus proved that in desperate times, diplomacy could become more influential when enhanced with military power.

A closer look reveals how global forces helped support the Kurdistan Workers' Party over the years... Abdullah Öcalan, whom Syria refused to hand over to Turkey, claiming he didn't live there, was deported from the country after the decisive ultimatum of the Turkish Armed Forces. Thus, a phase came to an end in the struggle against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorism that had lasted for almost 19 years. While Salman Zirqi, who was put in charge of Öcalan by Al Muhabarat, the Syrian Intelligence Service, helped him out of Syria to new destinations where he would find an equal amount of help and support, the chief terrorist was dreaming of new beginnings.

When U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Turkey last week, her mission was to drum up international support for new, hard-line measures against Iran. For their part, the Turks were more concerned with the America's continued failure to stabilize the situation in Iraq. Particularly problematic is the fact that Turkey's shared border with northern Iraq remains unsecured and has become an entry point for Kurdish terrorists. Operating from bases inside Iraq, the organization known as the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) has stepped up their incursions into eastern Turkey with the hopes of re-igniting a Kurdish separatist movement.

On February 16, in Nairobi, Kenya, Abdullah Ocalan, the founder and supremo of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), was captured and promptly sent to Turkey to face trial. As the main engineer of a Maoist guerrilla organization, he stands accused of crimes involving the death or wounding of some 30,000 people, and untold economic damage, mostly in Turkey, but also in Iraq and Germany. His arrest raises delicate questions: the political and legal aspects of international counterterrorism; the likely impact on Turkey's internal counterinsurgency campaign; the most appropriate treatment of Ocalan; and the larger geopolitical implications.

Greek Cypriot support given to the PKK terrorist organisation, known as one of the most dangerous international terror groups in the world, has once been proven, when a Cypriot passport issued by the Greek Cypriot Administration in South Cyprus was found in the possession of PKK leader Abdullah OCALAN who was recently captured and arrested by the Turkish security officers.

As a reprisal terrorist supporters have attacked Greek, Kenyan & UN diplomatic missions and taken hostages around the world. By this aggression against diplomatic compounds and personnel PKK has broken another international treaty against terrorism. In Turkey they have moved their arson/bombing operations to city targets, aiming civilians without care for ethnic origin.

After the arrest of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) "Chairman" Abdullah Ocalan on February 16 in Kenya, and his subsequent transfer to a Turkish jail to stand trial, widespread "Kurdish" demonstrations erupted throughout Europe, Canada, Australia, and the Middle East the very following day.

The Appendix of the letter written by Human Rights Watch on November 21, 1998, to the Italian Prime Minister detailing specific incidents of PKK crimes against humanity. This is only a partial list during the climax of PKK's terror period of 1992-1995. The list does not include civil servants or others. (Pictures of some of the incidents are available).