Dressed in an elegant jacket and tie and accompanied by a young woman, he might have passed through passport check without problems. However, Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), did not intend to enter Italy unnoticed. On arrival at Rome's Fiumicino airport last Thursday from Moscow, he presented a false Turkish passport, revealed his real identity and was immediately arrested.
In truth, police had been waiting for Ocalan. Nearly a month ago, the Turkish embassy in Rome had informed Italy that it believed the PKK leader would soon be moved on from Moscow (thanks to pressure from the Turkish government) and might be headed for Rome. Furthermore, Turkey had even given Italian authorities the false name under which Ocalan would travel. Fully aware that international warrants for Ocalan's arrest had been issued by Turkey and Germany, Italian officials had no option but to arrest him.
To put it mildly, Abdullah Ocalan's arrival in Italy has provoked mixed emotions. It was easy to believe the newly-installed Italian Prime Minister, Mr Massimo D'Alema, when he said on Monday: "The last thing I wanted was a complex and embarrassing problem like this."
The Ocalan problem is one all too familiar to Irish readers. Who and what is he? Freedom fighter or terrorist? The legitimate head of a repressed people or a violent maniac, whose movement finances itself by drug trafficking? A hero to his Kurdish people, Ocalan was earlier this week called a "murderer" by the Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Mesut Yilmaz. According to his followers, Ocalan has led a heroic 14-year armed campaign for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish south-east of Turkey. According to the Turkish government, he is a delinquent-cum-terrorist and Turkey's most wanted man, whose violence has claimed 29,000 lives.
At the heart of the Italian government's dilemma are the intricate questions of Turkey's demand for his extradition and Ocalan's request for political asylum. On the first, it seems almost impossible to find a way past the Italian constitutional ban on the extradition of anyone who may face the death penalty.
As recently as 1996, Italy refused to grant an extradition request for Pietro Venezia, a restaurateur accused of murder, on the grounds that he risked capital punishment in the US. Furthermore, the Turkish government's insistence this week that it is considering draft legislation abolishing the death sentence seems somewhat too improvised to change the Italian government's viewpoint.
Adding weight to the view that Ocalan will not be extradited is a broad swathe of political opinion including ex-President Francesco Cossiga, Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, ex-deputy prime minister and current Democratic Left leader Walter Veltroni, as well as a host of left-wing voices who have all spoken out strongly against extradition. On top of that, Italian public opinion, virulently opposed to capital punishment, is unlikely to favour extradition.
If Abdullah Ocalan is not to be extradited, what will Italy do with him? Will he be granted political asylum and, if so, will he be allowed to continue his activities from his new base? As for political asylum, the final decision will rest with Rome's Court of Appeals and that is a decision not likely to be taken immediately. As for future political activities, there's the rub . . .
Italy stands to lose badly from the Ocalan affair for at least two reasons. The refusal to extradite Ocalan has already provoked virulent anti-Italian sentiment in Istanbul, with demonstrations outside the Italian embassy and media comment of the type, "PKK's New Headquarters - Rome". If such sentiment is translated into bilateral relations Italy, the second largest exporter to Turkey, stands to lose out on annual trade worth $2.6 billion.
Then, too, there is the uncomfortable consideration that if Ocalan established himself in Rome, Italy might become a new Kurdish-Turkish battleground. The arrival of thousands of Kurds during the last few days to demonstrate on behalf of "Apo" (Uncle) Ocalan, only serves to make the point.
Whatever the fate of Abdullah Ocalan, the Italian government's handling of the affair may tell us a great deal about the leadership qualities of Mr D'Alema, in the hot seat of power less than a month. The Ocalan problem calan are is more complex than the party-political horse-dealing on which he climbed to power. The party apparatchik is about to meet the outside (real) world.