Abdullah Ocalan, jailed founder of the Kurdish militant PKK group, is an icon for many Kurds but a reviled terrorist for many Turks who is now at the heart of the biggest push for peace in over a decade. Since the latest tentative moves began in October 2024, PKK leaders have repeatedly demanded Ocalan's release, insisting it was essential for the process to work. "He is the person who initiated this process," senior PKK leader Devrim Palu told AFP in October. -For many Turks, Ocalan, who founded the PKK in 1978 and embodies the Kurdish rebellion, is public enemy number one. A Marxist-inspired group, the PKK began an insurgency in 1984, demanding independence and later broader autonomy in Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast.