Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who is serving a life sentence, warned the Turkish authorities that a "big war" would be launched if the country does not find a solution to the Kurdish problem after the June 12 parliamentary elections, RIA Novosti reports.
Ocalan was captured by Turkish intelligence in Kenya in February 1999. In June 1999 he was sentenced to death for terrorism and treason and imprisoned on the island of Imraly in the Sea of Marmara. This sentence was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment, without the right to pardon.
The PKK was declared a terrorist organization by the UN and the EU. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has been going on since 1984, claiming more than 40,000 lives.
