Situation tensed in Turkey: Kurds urge release of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan
Several thousand Kurds gathered in Turkish state of Haqqari to express their support for an independent Kurdistan and urge the release of former Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, Turkish “Dogan” news agency writes. A clash occurred among Kurdish rebels and the police officers, in the aftermath of which tear gas and water machine were used to cease the protestors.
Abdullah Ocalan has been serving a lifetime sentence at a prison in Turkey since 1999. Between 1984 and his capture in 1999, he led a Kurdish nationalist guerrilla revolt against the Turkish state. Öcalan was arrested abroad by Turkey, convicted of treason, and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment when Turkey abolished the death penalty in support of its bid to be admitted to membership in the European Union. His prison is on İmralı in the Sea of Marmara.