Pro-Öcalan march in Arbil

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: Dozens of supporters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) demonstrated on Friday in front of the human rights ministry building in Arbil city, calling for pressing the Turkish government through the UN to release their anti-Turkey leader Abdullah Öcalan. “Some unidentified fire were shot at the demonstrators but no casualties were reported,” according to the IraqiNews.com news agency correspondent. “We want the human rights ministry to practice pressures on Turkey via the humanitarian organizations belonging to the UN in order to secure the release of Öcalan,” one of the protesters, Mahmoud Alti, told IraqiNews.com. Abdullah “Apo” Öcalan, born on April 4, 1948, is the Kurdish founding leader of the PKK, which was founded in 1978 and has been recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union (EU) and many other countries in the region and in the world. The PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, which is banned in Turkey, has been leading an armed campaign inside Turkey since 1984. Öcalan was captured in Kenya on February 15, 1999, while being transferred from the Greek embassy to Nairobi international airport, in an operation by the CIA. AmR (P) 1