Turks Outraged as Italy Frees Kurdish Rebel

A Rome court on Friday released a Kurdish rebel leader detained when he came to Italy seeking asylum, drawing immediate threats of retaliation against Italy from outraged Turkish leaders.

The court threw out a Turkish arrest warrant for Abdullah Ocalan under a law barring extradition in death penalty cases. Although the court ordered Ocalan to stay in Rome, Justice Minister Oliviero Diliberto said the rebel chief will be a free man Dec. 23 if Germany chooses not to pursue extradition on its own warrant against him by then. Ocalan has been wanted in Germany on charges of terrorism since 1990.

In Turkey, Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz told his people to stay calm, saying: “The Turkish government will resolve this situation.

“Every wrong turn has a very hard price to pay, and the Turkish state is powerful enough to make them pay that price,” Yilmaz said of Italian leaders. He did not specify what that price might be.

Ocalan leads the Kurdistan Workers Party, which has fought a 14-year war for autonomy for Kurds in Turkey’s southeast. The conflict has killed 37,000 people.

Ocalan, a fugitive during much of the conflict, is on trial in absentia on capital charges in Turkey, which had demanded his extradition.

Ocalan is believed to have fled Syria when Turkey suggested that it might resort to military action against Syria for sheltering Kurdish rebels. He sought asylum in Russia, but before that country could decide on his request he showed up in Italy on Nov. 12.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright backed Turkey’s stand on Ocalan, telling a Washington news conference: “It is very important that he be brought to justice”--if not in Turkey, then in Italy or Germany.