ÖCALAN’S CAPTURE.

Abdullah Öcalan was born in 1948 inÖmerli, a village in the Halfeti district in Ufra province in southeastTurkey. He studied political science at Ankara University. After completinghis studies, he entered the civil service at Diyarbakir. Öcalanwas influenced by the situation of the Kurdish people, who, he believed,were denied by the Turkish state the right to live according totheir own cultural identity. He became an active member of the DemocraticCultural Association of the East, a group promoting the rightsof the Kurdish people. In 1984 the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK)began to launch attacks against the governments in Iraq, Iran, Syria,and Turkey with the goal of creating an independent Kurdish state.Approximately 30,000 people died as a result of the conflict betweenthe Turkish state and the PKK. Öcalan was considered a terrorist bythe Turkish government.Until 1998 Syria harbored Öcalan. As the situation in Turkey deteriorated,the Turkish government openly threatened Syria not to supportthe PKK. As a result, the Syrian government forced Öcalan to leave the country, although it did not hand him over to the Turkish authorities.Öcalan went to Russia first, and from there he moved tovarious countries, including Italy and then Greece and Kenya.In late November 1998 Turkish prime minister Bluent Ecevitasked Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu if the Mossadcould help to capture Öcalan. For Israel, a close working relationshipwith Turkey was considered an important strategic factor as part ofits Periphery Doctrine. Netanyahu agreed and instructed the directorof the Mossad, Efraim Halevy, to trace Öcalan for Turkey. Theplan to trace Öcalan was code-named Watchful.Six Mossad agents were dispatched to Rome, including a woman assistant—a position known in Mossad jargon as Bath Levayah—and twotechnicians. The team set up surveillance on Öcalan’s apartment closeto the Vatican, but Öcalan suddenly left Italy before being found. TheMossad team then began to search for him in most Mediterranean countries;however, it learned that on 2 February 1999 Öcalan had attemptedto enter the Netherlands but was turned away by Dutch authorities.Sources within Schiphol Airport security informed the Mossad thatÖcalan had boarded a flight to Nairobi. Kenya was considered easy terrainfor the Mossad, since the relations between the intelligence communitieshad developed over the years into fruitful cooperation.Soon Öcalan was traced near the Greek embassy compound inNairobi, with his Kurdish bodyguards going in and out frequently.The Mossad team reported daily to Tel Aviv on every move aroundthe compound and was ordered simply to continue to watch until theinstruction was given to capture Öcalan. The Mossad learned thatÖcalan had been turned down for political asylum in South Africaand other African countries.A member of the Mossad team with Kurdish appearance phonedone of the Kurdish bodyguards whose identity had became knownwhen he was seen emerging from the embassy en route to the NorfolkHotel. The Mossad agent suggested a meeting in town, at whichthe agent told the Kurd that Öcalan’s life would be in danger if he remainedin the compound. He suggested that Öcalan move to themountains of northern Iraq, where he would be safe. This was an ideathat Öcalan himself had started to consider, as the Mossad hadlearned by intercepting his phone calls from the Greek embassy.Eventually Öcalan took the bait. On 15 February 1999 a Falcon 900 executive jet landed atNairobi’s Wilson Airport. The pilot told the airport authorities that hehad come to pick up a group of businessmen. In fact, Öcalan was by

some means placed aboard the jet. According to some reports, Öcalanhad been drugged by the Mossad agents. Other versions maintain thatcapturing Öcalan was a joint venture by the Central IntelligenceAgency and the Mossad.Öcalan was flown to Turkey for trial. After his capture, he declareda “peace offensive” and the 15-year rebellion ceased, although therewere several isolated incidents, often by groups posing as the PKK.Öcalan has been held in solitary confinement on Imrali Island in theTurkish Sea of Marmara since his capture. Though initially sentencedto death, this sentence was commuted to life imprisonment when thedeath penalty was conditionally abolished in Turkey in August 2002.Although no one has publicly admitted that the Mossad was involvedin the Öcalan affair, the Mossad as a result lost a Kurdish spy networkin Iraq. The Öcalan case reveals how the Mossad sometimes works as acontractor for other governments, as in the Ben-Barka Affair.