A little too late

Osman Öcalan, brother of the imprisoned PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, has revealed that his newly-found fatherhood has significantly changed the way he perceives politics and war. Armed conflict and violence is no stranger to Osman Öcalan, who for years occupied a top position along side his brother in the separatist terrorist organization PKK. Following a dispute, Osman Öcalan left the PKK to form a political party which is formally known as the Kurdistan Patriot Party. Talking to Namık Durukan of Milliyet in an exclusive interview, Osman Öcalan revealed that his wife Keve, another ex-PKK member, gave birth to their first child – a baby boy named Fırat. “Having a child has changed my outlook on life,” Osman Öcalan said, “emotional elements are highly important in politics and it is really hard to obtain such virtues without having one’s own child.” Hinting at his imprisoned brother, Osman Öcalan said: “The people who led the war never knew what it felt like to have a child. Our struggle as Kurds suffered was because of such a lack of vision. Now that I am a father, I have started revising my spirituality. Having a child is the greatest joy in the world”. During the PKK’s terrorist attacks thousands of Turkish citizens lost their lives, among which were women and children, and even babies. �