Turkey Aims to Shackle More Than Ocalan

A day after bringing Abdullah Ocalan home to face trial, Turkey on Wednesday sought to turn the capture of the Kurdish warlord into a demoralizing rout of his cause, sending troops against his insurgents’ strongholds in northern Iraq and airing a videotape of the macho orator looking ill, dispirited and barely able to speak.

The merciless guerrilla chief, whose struggle for Kurdish self-rule made him Turkey’s most wanted fugitive, was reduced to a dazed, exhausted prisoner in the short video repeated throughout the day on Turkish television.

At one point in the footage--a shock to Kurdish militants already reeling from his arrest in Kenya--Ocalan asks his jubilant captors not to torture him. Instead, they mock him.

The propaganda clip and the military offensive were aimed at Ocalan’s thousands of armed followers, his millions of sympathizers and their goal of an autonomous ethnic Kurdish homeland in Turkey’s impoverished southeast. In the last 15 years, the separatist conflict has claimed about 30,000 lives.

Western governments and human rights monitors have voiced concern over Turkey’s uncompromising approach, saying it could undermine his chances of a fair trial. Ocalan, who is charged with treason, terrorism, promoting separatism and ordering killings, faces a possible death sentence.

Aside from the death penalty, European governments watching the Ocalan case have expressed concern over Turkey’s record of torture of Kurdish guerrilla suspects and its lack of an internationally accepted appeals procedure.

The United States, a close ally of Turkey, tempered its approval of Ocalan’s arrest with a plea Tuesday for evenhanded justice.

“We certainly trust that Turkey will conduct a fair and open trial in a manner consistent with international standards of due process. We don’t have any reason to expect otherwise,” State Department spokesman James Foley said. “But certainly the world community will be looking forward to a trial of that nature.”

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit offered assurances Wednesday that Ocalan’s trial would be “very just.” Turkish courts, he insisted, are independent.

“Turkey will put to shame those who have any doubts on the issue,” he told CNN in an interview.

But then his tone turned partisan. Asked how long the trial could last, the prime minister said, “It need not last too long, because all the unlawful actions, the crimes of the [rebel] leadership are known.”

Ecevit also defended Turkey’s refusal to allow three of Ocalan’s European lawyers to enter the country from the Netherlands. They were turned back at Istanbul’s airport early Wednesday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Sarmet Atacanli said the three had “acted in the past as militants rather than legitimate lawyers” and would not be allowed to “interfere” with the trial.

The decision raised concern that Amnesty International and other rights watchdogs would also be barred as observers. Under Turkish law, a defendant may be represented only by Turkish counsel.

The Dutch-based lawyers vowed to keep pressing Turkish authorities for access to their client. “We do not know . . . whether he has been tortured, whether he has been mistreated,” said Britta Boehler, one of the three. “We do not know anything.”

Turkish security courts, which combine civilian and military judges, had already opened several cases against Ocalan. The cases have proceeded--but cannot conclude--without his presence. Officials have said the cases may be combined into one trial. No starting date has been set.

Although the treason charge against Ocalan is punishable in Turkey by hanging, no prisoner has been executed here since 1984. Ecevit said Wednesday that he personally opposes the death penalty but acknowledged there is strong resistance in parliament to abolishing it.

Ecevit said Ocalan has been imprisoned on Imrali island in the Sea of Marmara. Turkish commandos took him into custody late Monday after he left the Greek Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya--his hide-out since Feb. 2--and spirited him to Turkish soil for the first time in 20 years.

The guerrilla leader had been on the run after fleeing his longtime base in Syria last fall under a Turkish threat to invade that country.

Turkey’s offensive into northern Iraq involves an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 troops, who began crossing the border with armored vehicles about the time of Ocalan’s arrest. Such Turkish incursions are periodic, but this one was bigger than usual.

More devastating to Kurdish militants was the video shot by Ocalan’s captors. Never a front-line fighter, Ocalan achieved supreme authority among Kurdish rebels as the burly, bearded political boss and forceful training-camp orator who dominated Med-TV, the movement’s London-based satellite channel.

The image on the video released by Turkey’s intelligence service is stunningly different.

Ocalan is shown being put aboard a private jet in Kenya blindfolded with tape and bound by handcuffs. He is then strapped into a seat, and the tape wrapped around his head is cut away. He winces. A close-up shows his face drenched in sweat.

“If the truth needs to be told, I love Turkey and the Turkish nation and I want to serve it,” Ocalan says, grimacing. “If I have the chance, I would be pleased to serve. Let there be no torture or anything. I would be happy to serve.”

One of black-masked commandos replies in a mocking tone: “Welcome to your country. You’re our guest now.”