MANDELA OF THE MIDDLE EAST?
Abdullah Öcalan (aka Apo) was born of a part-Kurdish and part-Turkish family, in the village of Ömerli in eastern Turkey, maybe in 1947. He isn’t sure – and no official birth records exist. Confusingly, in April this year his supporters celebrated his 71st birthday – in his absence, naturally. For, since 1999, the de facto leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been held at Imrali Island Prison on the Marmara Sea, Turkey, most of the time in solitary confinement.
As a boy he wanted to join the army, but failed the entrance exam for military high school. At school in Ankara, however, he met others who shared his growing interest in Kurdish rights.
After leaving school he took up a job at a title deeds office in Diyarbakir before moving to Istanbul to start a law degree. There
