Abdullah Öcalan

Also known as Abdullah Ocalan, Apo, Öcalan

founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)

AI overview

Abdullah Öcalan is the founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a militant organization that has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey since the 1980s. He is a significant and controversial figure in Middle Eastern politics whose capture, imprisonment, and ideology have shaped decades of conflict and debate over Kurdish rights in the region.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: Abdullah
Gender: male
Citizenship: Turkey
Place of birth: Ömerli
Spouse: Kesire Yıldırım
Sibling: Osman Öcalan
Occupation: political scientist
Educated at: Ankara University
Political party: Kurdistan Workers' Party
Languages spoken: Turkish
Native language: Turkish
Official website: abdullahocalan.net
Image: Abdullah Öcalan.png
Residence: İmralı

Show 10 more facts

date of birth: 1949-04-04
Commons category: Abdullah Öcalan
ethnic group: Kurds
writing language: Turkish
hashtag: Öcalan
relative: Ömer Öcalan
topic's main category: Category:Abdullah Öcalan
name in native language: Abdullah Öcalan
maintained by WikiProject: WikiProject Socialism
supported sports team: Galatasaray SK

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Encyclopedic overview

Abdullah Öcalan (/ˈoʊdʒəlɑːn/ OH-jə-lahn; Turkish: [œdʒaɫan]; born 4 April 1948 or 1949), also known as Apo (short for Abdullah in Turkish; Kurdish for "uncle"), is a founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Öcalan was based in Syria from 1979 to 1998. He helped found the PKK in 1978, and led it into the Kurdish–Turkish conflict in 1984. For most of his leadership, he was based in Syria, which provided sanctuary to the PKK until the late 1990s.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Abdullah Öcalan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.