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.

After years of recruiting and indoctrinating followers, the PKK was formally established on November 7, 1978. In the previous year (1977), he committed his first known murder, that of an ideological rival accused of working for the government. He actually worked for the government PTT telecom brach for some time but was finally fired for lack of attendance.

During the 1980 military coupe in Turkey an arrest warrant for his murders was awarded and he escaped into Damascus, Syria. There with the help of Syrian and Libyan donations formed the PKK. Later on Greece was also reported to be unofficially supporting it. There are alleged Armenian connections as well.

He was know for leading operations from his villa in Syria, never personally entering the battle field. He turned the PKK into a very hierarchical organization not allowing any dissent from its members with Abdullah Ocalan as the supreme commander. This caused several of his top aides and field commanders to switch sides and surrender delivering serious tactical and psychological blows.

At the time of his arrest in Kenya he was travelling on a Greek Cypriot passport supplied to him by his Greek hosts who had put him up for 2 weeks in the Greek Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. When Kenyan authorities found out about this they asked for him and was consequently turned over to the authorities.

Since the 1980s, the group has evolved into a deadly insurgence against Turkey, reaching a strength of some 5,000 by 1992. From his bases in Syria and Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, Öcalan conducted a ruthless campaign, ostensibly for Kurdish independence but, as widely available PKK internal documents suggest, the ultimate goal is the creation of a Maoist state in areas of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. Starting from 1997 PKK’s operations have started to die down and loose the limited support it had in the Turkish south east and therefore resulted in increased public relations efforts in Europe.

Öcalan’s arrest raises serious issues that include, but go beyond that of dealing with terrorism. Judging by the number of victims, Öcalan is in rarefied company in today’s terrorist Pantheon – only Guzman himself and the other Maoist cum nationalist Vellupilai Pirapaharan of the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka are in the same league.

A video of Abdullah Ocalan’s boarding the private jet with Turkish Special Forces in Nairobi-Kenya was released recently. In it a seemingly exhausted and demoralized man says in Turkish (he speaks very little Kurdish) “If the truth needs to be told, I love Turkey and the Turkish nation and I want to serve it” as his blindlofds are removed inside.

Today Abdullah “Apo” Ocalan sits in a special prison in the Turkish Marmara sea awaiting his trial date.