ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Previously unreleased photographs on the Internet of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), have raised a chatter of discussion among Kurds around the world.
Two photos of Ocalan, which appeared Friday online, show the 65-year-old leader sitting with the joint leaders of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Selahattin Demirtas and Pervin Buldan, during a visit to his island prison in August.
One of the pictures shows Ocalan in a light blue shirt and sitting across a table with Demirtas and Buldan.
Buldan confirmed that the photos had been taken during her visit but that they are different from the ones she brought away with her that day.
“Those photos have been taken on the day we visited him (Ocalan),” said Buldan. “But they are not the same photos that we have,” she added. “I don’t know who has leaked the photos.”
The photographs, believed to have been published by the People's Democratic Party (HDP), gave a glimpse of the charismatic Kurdish leader 14 years after he was abducted in Kenya and was sentenced to life on Imrali Island.
It was reported that during their previous visits to the prison the Kurdish MPs had taken group photographs with Ocalan but that the Turkish Ministry of Justice had barred their publication due to the sensitive nature of the matter.
In the past few years, particularly since the start of a peace process between the PKK and Ankara, politicians and parliamentarians from the BDP have served as a link between Ocalan and his fighters in the Qandil Mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The photographs clearly show that Ocalan’s hair has grown white, very different from his black head of hair 14 years ago.
Some PKK leaders believe that the release of the photos by Turkey may have to do with the fierce rivalry that has been raging in recent months between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Fethullah Gulen, a spiritual leader, businessman and head of the powerful Gulen movement.
Ocalan’s brother, Osman, who briefly led the PKK after the leader’s abduction in 1999, believes that the release of the photos may change Ocalan’s conditions for the better.
“The (Turkish) state allowing these photos to come out is a good step,” he told Rudaw. “I believe that after the release of these photos Ocalan’s condition will improve and other (positive) steps will be taken.”
“Fourteen years ago Apo’s (Ocalan’s) hair wasn’t that white and he was full of life,” the imprisoned leader’s brother added, “Now, he is old. I was saddened to see those photos and see him old.”
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