The younger brother of
Abdullah Öcalan, Osman studied at teachers' training college before joining the
PKK when it was founded in 1978 and spent two years in
Libya.
Career with the PKK He joined the central committee in 1986, and the executive committee in the 1990s, becoming virtually second in command of the PKK. But in 1992, after signing a truce with the two main Iraqi Kurdish parties, the
KDP and the
PUK, he suffered disgrace and was jailed by the PKK. "In June 1993, they removed all my powers", he told
The Middle East in an interview. "I was isolated in a cell for three months and interrogated for 52 days before being tried in February 1995. The trial lasted only one day. I was warned that if I continued to defend my ideas, I would be executed. If not, I would be pardoned. A lawyer? Out of the question. The trial was conducted under the law of the mountain". In 1994, he left the PKK in order to marry a fellow PKK fighter. The PKK forbids relationships between its guerillas. He later rejoined the PKK. At the seventh congress of the PKK, he advocated for the PKK to lay down arms and change the PKK's name into People's Legitimate Defense Force. Later he also suggested the PKK to lay down their arms in order to enable Turkey and the
European Union to begin negotiations with the group. In 2000
The Independent referred to him as a "senior commander" of the PKK when Medya TV, the underground Kurdish satellite television channel reported him as claiming that the Turkish authorities wanted his brother to die. But the PWD was short-lived, did not become an important party, and after Fidan was assassinated in
Diyarbakir in July 2005, ''
Today's Zaman'', referring to him as a "former PKK leader", quoted him as saying "For 20 years I was part of the struggle; but because of ideological differences, I pulled out of it. Now I am with armed fighters who defend themselves, but am against the PKK".
Ergenekon allegations In August 2009,
Hurriyet reported that Abdullah Öcalan had produced a 125-page petition in which he suggested that his brother Osman be investigated for his links to
Ergenekon. It was thought by the public and some news organizations that Öcalan was wanted with a red notice at the time of the TRT Kurdî's interview. However, it was later revealed that Öcalan was not officially wanted by Turkey nor
Interpol.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of the Republic of Turkey, made a statement regarding the interview as "I don't know that Osman Öcalan is wanted with a red notice."
Death Öcalan died from
COVID-19 in
Erbil on 15 November 2021, during the
COVID-19 pandemic in Iraq. He was 63 years old. ==References==