PKK Leader to Have a “Secretariat”

Transfers are reportedly underway of 5 inmates in Imrali Prison in order to be replaced by 5 other inmates to serve as the secretariat of Abdullah Öcalan - PKK’s jailed leader. 

Convicted in the cases of PKK (4) and TIKKO “illegal organization” cases, the aforementioned 5 inmates pending transfer have been serving their sentences in Imrali Island Prison along with Öcalan for the past 4.5 years. 

The “secretariat member” inmates, on the other hand, have been charged with life sentences each for PKK membership charges. 

According to Ferit Aslan’s article by Doğan News Agency, the “secretariat” members and their original transfer locations have been announced as follows:  Mehmet Sait Yıldırım (Diyarbakır Prison), Ömer Hayri Konar (Sincan Prison), Çetin Arkaş (Nazilli Prison), Nasrullah Kuran (Nazilli Prison) and Veysi Aktaş (Kırıkkale Prison). 

The judicial backgrounds of the “secretariat” members are as follows:

Ömer Hayri Konar has been been prison for 13 years. He served in the new organization of PKK between 2000 and 2002. One of close names to Abdullah Öcalan, Konar has been captured in Syria and sent to Turkey. 

Mehmet Sait Yıldırım is in prison since 1993. Joined PKK in Germany and stayed in PKK Headquarters in Bekaa Valley, Yıldırım has been tried at PKK’s Düseldorf case. 

Çetin Arkaş and Nasrullah Kuran have been serving in prison for 23 years. Known as PKK’s prison leaders, they have been tried with “managing the relations of an illegal organization”. The case has been closed with nolle prosequi 9 months later.

Similarly with all the mentioned above, Veysi Aktaş has been convicted to a life sentences for “attempting to divide a certain part of the state territory from the state authority” and has been serving in prison for the past 21 years. (EKN/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.