Photo Gallery 'Öcalan Is Key To Any Bid To Solve the Kurdish Conflict'
Villagers are seen carrying the coffins of air strike victims in Gulyazi, a town in southeastern Turkey following a military operation against the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) on Dec. 30. At the end of December, 35 civilians were killed during an air attack by the Turkish army. At the same time, around 5,000 Kurdish politicians and activists are in prison, says Mahmut Sakar, an attorney for PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. "People are frustrated and angry," he says. "Day by day the chances of resolving this conflict are waning."
But the PKK hasn't been reluctant to fight, either. Here, the coffins of Turkish soldiers killed in an attack by the PKK are carried during an army funeral in August in the city of Van in eastern Turkey.
Here, Kurdish demonstrators carrying flags with portraits of Öcalan conduct a protest in Brussels, Belgium. The Turkish judiciary has arrested 36 lawyers who represented PKK leader Öcalan. Sakar himself fled to Germany.
