Turkey to Retry Kurdish Rebel
ANKARA, Turkey — In a widely anticipated ruling, Europe's top human rights court Thursday urged Turkey to grant a retrial to Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, saying his 1999 trial was not fair.
The decision by the European Court for Human Rights is expected to stoke anger in Turkey and complicate Ankara's efforts to lead this predominantly Muslim country into the European Union, Western diplomats and Turkish officials said.
Leaders in Ankara, the capital, said they would respect the court's decision and retry a man most Turks revile. But officials also sought to reassure Turks that Ocalan would be found guilty of treason charges at a retrial and remain in jail.
"We must be as cold-blooded as possible
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visiting Hungary, said, "Whether this case is reopened or not, the matter [of Ocalan's guilt] is a closed one for the nation's conscience."
Even as Turkish leaders sought to play down the Strasbourg, France-based court's opinion, opposition leaders predicted major consequences. "This decision will excite separatist appetites, invite armed attacks," said Devlet Bahceli, leader of the ultranationalist Nationalist Action Party.
"Our honor has been assailed, Turkey will be in an uproar," he said.
Turkey's hawkish military joined the criticism with Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, commander of land forces, calling the ruling "political" and "crooked." His statement echoed widespread sentiment that the EU was putting up fresh hurdles to Turkey's entry to the common market.
Recent polls show that support for EU membership has begun to cool, with 63% of Turks in favor compared with 75% about a year ago.
"There is still a lot of suspicion about European motives, fears that Europe is seeking to dismember Turkey" by supporting Kurdish rights, said Dogu Ergil, a political scientist at Ankara University.
Ocalan, 56, led a 15-year insurgency to establish an independent Kurdish state in the southeast until 1999, when he was captured by Turkish special forces in Nairobi, Kenya.
His 5,000-member rebel army called off its fight and retreated to mountain bases in northern Iraq after Ocalan renounced armed violence and withdrew demands for Kurdish statehood, saying Turkey's 14 million Kurds would settle for cultural autonomy.
