(24 Nov 1999) Turkish/Nat
The Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan will hear on Thursday whether his appeal against the death sentence has been successful.
Lawyers for Abdullah Ocalan have said they hope the court will overturn his death sentence, but the Kurdish rebel leader has said he was prepared to die.
Turkey convicted Ocalan of treason in May, sparking protests across Europe by Kurdish expatriates.
Ocalan's lawyers argued that he did not have fair access to legal advice during his trial and that his capture by Turkish commandos in Kenya was illegal.
Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or P-K-K, was tried in May on the heavily guarded prison island of Imrali where he was the only inmate.
The judge brushed aside pleas for leniency and condemned Ocalan to hang, saying his 15-year guerrilla struggle led to the deaths of 'babies, children, women and the elderly'.
Ocalan's guerrillas have been fighting Turkish soldiers in the barren mountains of southeastern Turkey, fighting for the Kurdish people and their right to self-determination.
The families of slain Turkish soldiers, their lawyers and members of the public burst into the national anthem and waved Turkish flags after hearing the verdict.
He was abducted by Turkish commandos in February in Kenya, after months of moving from one place to another to find a country willing to grant him asylum.
For months before his capture, Ocalan had been on the run, evading a massive manhunt and seeking refuge in different countries - including Russia, Italy and Kenya.
There was speculation that Ocalan's capture would spark a massive escalation in fighting.
Since his capture, Ocalan has said he would be happy with Kurdish cultural rights and ordered his guerrillas to stop the armed struggle and transform themselves into a peaceful party.
It was with jubilation that Turkey's prime minister announced that Ocalan had been captured in Kenya.
But Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, who is an opponent of the death penalty, is anxious to overcome European objections to Turkey's shaky human rights record.
He also wants Turkey to be accepted as a candidate for entry into the European Union next month.
European states had been quick to urge Turkey not to execute Ocalan.
Observers have also warned that hanging the guerrilla leader could jeopardise Turkey's goal of entering the European Union.
But there is overwhelming support among Turks for Ocalan to be executed - especially among families of those who died at the hands of Kurdish rebels.
The strength of feeling on both sides is massive.
His capture had sparked violent protests by Kurds in Turkey, Europe and elsewhere.
Equally, such is the hatred of Ocalan within sections of the Turkish population in Germany that 15-thousand Turks had earlier turned out on the streets of Bonn to demand Ocalan be extradited from Italy.
Turkish human rights organisations criticise both sides in the war.
SOUNDBITE: (Turkish)
SUPERCAPTION: Eren Keskin, Turkish Human Rights Association
Kurds are denied minority rights in Turkey, such as the right to teach in Kurdish.
Some 37,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died as a result of the campaign led by Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party.
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