Abdulla Ocalan, the leader of the PKK (Kurdistan Worker’s Party), after being hounded from country to country, was betrayed and finally handed over to the fascist Turkish authorities. It was he who initiated the Kurdish People’s armed struggle for national liberation 15 years ago. Since then, the PKK has grown into a mighty force controlling vast areas of Kurdish territory situated in the four countries of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. For over 75 years, ever since the formation of the Turkish state the Kurdish people’s basic rights have been systematically crushed.

Till today Kurdish language is banned in Turkey and is not allowed on TV, radio, etc. The Kurdish people have faced continuous pogroms; 2500 of their villages have been destroyed and 30 lakh Kurds displaced. Villages are bombed, Kurdish people and the fighters have suffered mass-scale arrests, tortures, rapes in the thousands and over these one-and-a-half decades 30,000 Kurdish fighters and their supporters have been killed. Even legal pro-Kurdish parties are not allowed to function in Turkey. The Turkish state spends $7 billion yearly in anti-PKK operations and have pitted over 50,000 troops against the Kurdish fighters.

After the arrest of Ocalan a new offensive has been launched against the Kurdish people and the PKK. In a two-pronged attack it has stepped up its military offensive against PKK bases and also resorted to mass-scale arrests of pro-Kurdish people. Ground and air forces have not only hit bases within Turkey, but also crossed the border into Iraq ignoring strong protests from the Iraqi government. Simultaneously, over 500 members of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party have been arrested including its entire 57-member directorate and its chairman.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to bomb the PKK to the negotiating table, a simultaneous offer of clemency was made by the Turkish prime minister for those who gave up arms, and the Hurriyet newspaper propagated that Ocalan himself would make a similar call on video tape from prison. To these devious tactics a fitting reply was given by the PKK spokeswoman, Mizgin Sen, in-charge of the political wing. She said : "There is no way that we will take this as an order from our leader.... On the contrary, the war with Turkey will continue."

Ocalan has been in exile since 1989. For most of the past decade he has been based in Syria. Syria, being part of the erstwhile Soviet-bloc countries, had severe contradictions with Turkey and so lent support to the PKK. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the declining impact of Russian imperialism on Syria, Turkish/US pressure increased. And after Turkey established a close military alliance with Israel, it has even gone to the extent of threatening war on Syria if it continued its support to the PKK. The Syrian government capitulated and expelled Ocalan. He fled to Russia. But Russia refused him asylum and so he went to Italy.

As the EU has been soft on the PKK, Ocalan expected support. Kurdistan, being highly strategically placed, and as a gateway to Central Asia (with its vast oil and gas deposits), it was seen by the EU as a potential counter to US influence in Turkey. Europe has supported several Kurdish centres; the ‘Kurdish Parliament in exile’ had met in Rome only two months earlier, a Kurdish private satellite openly broadcasts from Europe; Europe has remained cold to the US proposed pipeline to transport oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey; it has excluded Turkey as a candidate for EU membership giving preference to Cyprus, etc. And even during Ocalan’s stay in Italy in November ’98, while the US was vociferously demanding his extradition, Europe was silent.

Yet Europe was not willing to openly take sides and give asylum to Ocalan. After all, in Germany the PKK has been declared a terrorist organisation and banned. And when massive pressure was brought on Italy by the Turkish/US/Israel combine, Europe’s continued silence ended in the betrayal of Ocalan. After all, Italy is Turkey’s third largest trading partner with a yearly trade of $6 billion. Also, not only do Italian MNCs have vast interests in Turkey, but Italy has billions of dollars worth defence contracts from Turkey. With Turkey resorting to a trade embargo and threatening to scrap all business contracts with Italy... the so-called Left-wing government in Italy quietly shifted Ocalan out of the country.

After being rejected in a number of countries Ocalan finally took refuge in Greece. Greece, which has a long-standing dispute with Turkey, hoped to utilise the Ocalan factor in their favour. But, with the US, monitoring all his movements, the Greek rulers bowed to US arm-twisting and surreptitiously handed over Ocalan to Turkish authorities in Kenya.

It is one thing to utilise inter-imperialist contradictions, it is quite another to become dependent on anyone of them. It was first the Syrian and the Russian imperialists who betrayed the PKK, and later EU too has played an even more dangerous role. Now, for the EU to demand international observers at the Ocalan trial is like doing first-aid on a festering wound.

While the rulers played a dubious and treacherous role, there have been worldwide protests by the people, particularly Kurdish people, against the arrest of Ocalan. Fury was unleashed not only at Turkish offices and embassies but also at Israeli, Greek and Kenyan establishments. In Greece the entire country has come out against the treacherous role of their leaders forcing the resignation of three ministers and the chief of intelligence.

In Europe, Kurdish protesters stormed the Greek and Kenyan embassies, took some people hostage in the Netherlands, Austria and Germany and set fire to embassy premises. They were supported by democratic forces within Europe. In Berlin, Kurds stormed the Israeli consulate resulting in the shooting and killing of three protesters. This led to an outburst throughout Europe against Israeli offices and a 7000-strong rally of Kurds in Bonn. In Rome, Italian youth fought pitched battles with the police and set fire to the Turkish airline office. Thousands protested in the Netherlands and Austria. In West Asia, Palestinians held a rally in the West Bank, while in Iran 3000 people marched to the Turkish consulate. Of course, the biggest outbursts were in Istanbul and other towns of Turkey, where demonstrators attacked government targets inspite of the fascist restrictions on rallies.

It is clear that the imperialist designs to get the PKK to capitulate after the arrest of its leader, will not be so easy to achieve. Inspite of certain elements in Turkey and Europe who speak in favour of compromise — there can be little doubt that any compromise would mean capitulation to the Turkish fascist rulers and their US/Israeli sponsors. The Kurdish people are bound to fight on until they achieve total freedom.