Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Bcrhc'l1oka Çapê-Ri'l1ista Stampn-Dellt,.£) de ln Prel1Sa-BaSlIl Özeti
General Cihansiz pointed out that there had been no hot confrontation in the recent months with the terrorists,
that the terrorists were unable to travel to settlement areas to get supplies due to continuing
operations, and that they had.spent the winter months' by living on theirstocks.
He added that the organization was still receiving, though little, logistic support, and that things would
have come to a complete end if they had not.
The General said they estimated one third of the members of the organization as to have withdrawn from
the region, and that the so-called top-level officials of the organization had banned all means, including
transceivers, of communication in order not to reveal their .locations and added, "we expect some
sort of activity with the inset of spring, for they must be in need of at least food supplies; but we do
not yet know if they would be in the form of violent activities or obedience with th~ repentance bill.
So, we shall wait and see."
Former Marxist-Leninist Ocalan takes up religious studies: lawyer
24 Mar 2000 Agence France-Presse
ANKARA, March 24 (AFP) - Condemned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah
Leninist Kurdistan 'Workers'
Party (PKK), has devoted his time in jail to theological studies,
"Ocalan iS'writing an essay on the history of religions and the
Dogan Erbas said.
Ocalan, leader of the initially Marxist-
one of his lawyers told AFP Friday.
relationship between Kurds and Islam,"
"He is also studying Zoroastrianism," an ancient religion that sees the world divided into the forces
of good and evil, the lawyer added. The PKK, which has waged a 1S-year war against Ankara for selfrule
in southeast Anatolia, distanced itself from Marxist-Leninist ideology in the early 1990s after the
collapse'of Communism in Europe.
Ocalan began reading books on religion and different cultures after the shocking discovery of a series
of murders by a shadowy "Islamist group, the Turkish Hizbullah, Erbas said.
Since mid-January, police have exhumed 61 victims -- kidnapped and killed by the Hizbullah as part of
its campaign to overrun the secular system in the country -- in mass graves across Turkey. "Ocalan
believes that some aspects of Islam and pro-Islamic political parties like (the main opposition) Virtue
Party are an obstacle to Turkey's democratization," Erbas said.
:' .
"He also thinks that in the 21st century people should make a synthesis of the positive elements of
Islam, Christianityand Judaism," he added. Erbas said the rebel leader was in good physical and mental
condition. Ocalan, sentenced to death for treason and separatism in June, is being held on the island
of Imrali, in the Marmara Sea in northwestern Turkey.
In January, the government put his sentence on hold after the European Court of HumanRights demanded.
a stay of execution until it rules on Ocalan's complaints against Ankara -- a process than could take
up to two years. The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed some 36,000 lives.
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