The capture by Turkish security forces of the Kurdish guerrilla leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in Kenya and the furious response by his supporters around Europe are the stuff of political thrillers and legend. They dramatise the prolonged and bloody conflict between Turkey's army and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the south-east of the country. Many questions about Turkey's military and political structures and human rights norms are raised by this conflict, as are questions about the PKK's ruthless methods, left-wing ideology and separatist objectives. They will be highlighted further by the political and judicial treatment accorded Ocalan now that he has been captured after 15 years of guerrilla struggle.
As far as the Turkish government and military are concerned, Mr Ocalan is the criminal leader of a Maoist organisation campaigning for the disintegration of their state and responsible for the deaths of some 23,000 people by the use of indiscriminate terror against civilians, state functionaries, commercial targets, dissidents and the armed forces themselves. He is wanted for homicide by Interpol. His organisation is accused of involvement in crimes such as drug trafficking, arms smuggling, extortion, illegal immigration, abduction of children and money laundering to recruit members and obtain money for arms. Literature published by the Turkish government backs up these charges with a ceaseless barrage of propaganda about the PKK's terrorist record.
It is a formidable indictment, as might be expected from a state that has systematically militarised this conflict and categorically refuses to consider a political solution to it. Huge sums have been spent in mobilising its armed forces against not only the PKK's fighters in the south-eastern part of the country but the Kurdish civilian population there as well in a classic counter-insurgency operation. Whole communities have been removed from some 3,000 villages into nearby cities, as military and security forces are given free rein against suspected sympathetic individuals, parties and media.
In this process many Kurds, who had rejected the PKK's methods and programme, ended up lending them support against a repressive state and military machine. The complexity and deep historical roots of the conflict were obscured. There are an estimated 10 to 12 million Kurds in Turkey, half of whom live in the Istanbul conurbation, where they have migrated and assimilated. But their cultural and political rights have been heavily circumscribed in a nation-state constructed on strictly unitary lines by Kemal Ataturk after the collapse of the Ottoman empire. Demands for autonomy are seen by political elites and the powerful military as synonymous with secession, even though this is certainly not what most Kurds - or arguably the PKK - want.
Whether Mr Ocalan can receive a fair trial in all these circumstances is deeply problematic. The military influence is powerful in the security courts (despite the assurance that he will face an independent judicial process); general elections are due in April and the death penalty still applies. There is little or no sign of a willingness to resolve the Kurdish question politically. Turkey's reputation as a modern democracy capable of, and entitled to, membership of the European Union will therefore be put very much on the line as it puts Abdullah Ocalan on trial.