Ocalan trial: Triumph or test of Turkish policy on Kurds?

(CNN) -- When Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan (pronounced URGE'ah-lohn) was arrested and then tried on a prison island some 35 miles south of Istanbul, it was a moment of triumph for Turks: here was Turkey's most-wanted man being humbled before a court whose authority he shunned.

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But for Kurdish nationalists, Ocalan's trial, which began May 31, offered an ironic opportunity. To them it was a chance to present Turkey as a repressive state that crushed their dream of self-determination.

Turkey is home to more than half the world's estimated 25 million Kurds. Others are scattered throughout the rugged reaches of Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Kurds see themselves as the largest ethnic group without a homeland, a people promised nationhood in the past, only to have it seized from their grasp. They are banned from teaching in their own language and were not officially recognized as a people in Turkey until 1991.

In 1978, left-wing Kurds under the direction of Ocalan founded the Marxist PKK, an organization whose goal was autonomy for Turkey's Kurds. The government beat the PKK to the brink of annihilation during the early 1980s.

Ocalan was arrested after leaving the Greek embassy in Kenya

But Ocalan fled to Syria, where in 1984 he and his supporters regrouped and declared war on the Turkish government.

The PKK launched a violent campaign aimed at weakening the government, following the examples of Peru's Shining Path and Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. PKK rebels allegedly have slaughtered thousands of Kurdish villagers who refused to support their cause, especially school teachers whom they blamed for spreading Turkish propaganda. They have ambushed police and soldiers and claimed responsibility for numerous bombings across the country, including tourist destinations.

In response, Turkey cracked down harshly. Local governors were granted sweeping powers to exterminate PKK influence in their provinces.

After Ocalan's arrest February 15, 1999 outside the Greek Embassy in Kenya, Turkey reveled in its unexpected victory. But the celebration was subdued quickly by Kurdish uprisings across Europe. Almost immediately, Europeans, who have in the past criticized Turkey's human rights record, issued calls for a fair trial.

Population: 63 million Ethnic Groups: Turks 80 to 88 percent; Kurds 10 to 20 percent; Arabs 1.5 percent; others 0.3 percent. Official religion: None GNP Per Capita: U.S. $2,780

Ankara had inflamed European skepticism about the trial by barring international observers from the courtroom, limiting Ocalan's access to his legal team and announcing he would be tried not by a criminal tribunal, but by a State Security Court, a panel usually convened to hear cases dealing with national security.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, in fact, has repeatedly ruled in cases against Turkey that the presence of the military judge on the court panel violates the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which Ankara ratified in 1954.

Kurdish supporters clash with police during a Rome protest against Ocalan's arrest in February

"Very few people have any doubts about how this trial will come out," Alan Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Most people recognize that the PKK was under Ocalan's direction and the PKK committed numerous acts of terrorism, and even those that don't think so will recognize that Turkey views it that way."

Turks were aghast when Italy refused to extradite Ocalan when he appeared in Rome in November 1998. After all, they asked, how could a Europe that prided itself on respect for justice protect a known "terrorist"?

Ankara is still smarting over its exclusion from the next group of candidates for European Union membership. Buoyed by strong support from the United States and a growing military alliance with Israel, Turkey may feel it can afford to ignore European criticism.

Its relations with neighboring Greece have deteriorated rapidly. Turkey is enraged that Greek diplomats sheltered Ocalan at their embassy in Kenya and has accused Athens of training and supporting PKK fighters.

"We're in for choppy seas on the Aegean," Makovsky said.

The court's verdict of a death sentence for Ocalan also has clouded prospects for reconciliation between Kurdish separatists and the Turkish government. One thing appears fairly certain: the long-running dispute over Kurdish rights will not end with the trial of Abdullah Ocalan.