Opposition lawmaker to host House of Commons event in support of jailed PKK leader

A UK opposition lawmaker will host the launch of a campaign on 25 April for the release of Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned head of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to Anadolu Agency.

Ocalan was arrested by Turkish forces in 1999 and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished in 2004.

The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has been raging for over three decades and the PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union.

Turhan Ozen, who leads the UK branch of the Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD), a pro-Turkish lobby group, condemned the decision to use parliament as a venue in support of Ocalan, saying it served to legitimise the group.

“If Turkey were today to hold a campaign in its own parliament for an al-Qaeda representative or an ISIS [Daesh] representative, this would be no different to what Britain has done,” Ozen said to Anadolu Agency.

“Countries and other entities that are bound by international agreements should not use terrorist organisations as tools because they eventually become a headache,” he said.

Ozen added: “The terrorist organisation known as the PKK may have done what you asked them to do in your fight against Daesh, but once Russia became involved it transformed into an unknown entity.”

A spokesman for the Home Office told Anadolu Agency it was a matter for the police and prosecutors to decide whether the event would be considered an encouragement of terrorism.

A poster promoting the event, which is organised by two of Britain’s largest trade unions, argues Ocalan must be released because he is “key to a peaceful solution in Turkey”.

Monday’s campaign launch is hosted by Labour Party lawmaker Kate Osamor, a close ally of the party’s left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Sources in the Labour Party told Anadolu Agency this week that it had not changed its position on the PKK and the reasons behind the meeting were best discussed with the lawmaker herself.