Old woman gives Victory sign in Kurdish north London march demanding release of Abdullah Ocalan from Turkish jail
Around a thousand Kurds marched through north London on 15 Feb, 2008 to mark the 8th anniversay of the illegal rendition of Abdullah Ocalan and to demand his release from a Turkish jail. Many carried flags with his portrait on them, and there was a very strong police presence. Many Kurds see Ocalan as their national leader while others regard him as a terrorist. On 15 Feb 1999 he was kidnapped in Kenya in an operation allegedly involving the CIA, Mossad and the Turkish intelligence agency and flown back to Turkey where he was tried by a military court. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he is now the only prisoner on the island of Imrali. Ocalan was a founder of the PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan - Kurdish Workers Party), listed as a terrorist organisation by the USA, EU and some other states. In recent years the PKK has increasingly become simply a nationalist rather than a terrorist movement, with Ocalan calling for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question. Other Turks still see the PKK as terrorists, and the Turkish army has attacked their camps both in Turkey and across the border in northern Iraq. Turks in England demonstrated last year against continued support by organisations here for the PKK. Kurds form significant or majority populations in a large area of Turkey as well as in Iraq (where they enjoy some autonomy), Syria and Iran. After the First World War a Kurdish state was proposed for the Turkish areas, but other considerations prevailed.
Size: 5010px × 3354px
Location: Kingsland High St, Dalston, Hackney, London, England, UK
Photo credit: © Peter Marshall / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: anniversary, dalston, hackney, jail, kurds, london, march, ocalan, pkk, prison, protest, turkey, turkish
