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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/01/20131106596765340.html
Three Kurdish activists found dead in Paris
Bodies found early Thursday morning inside the Kurdish Information
Centre, including a co-founder of the PKK.
Last Modified: 10 Jan 2013 17:04
Three Kurdish women have been killed overnight inside the Kurdish Information
Centre in Paris, including a co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Their bodies were found at around 2am on Thursday morning [0100GMT]. All three
were shot in the head.
"The scene leads one to think of an execution, but the investigation will
determine the exact circumstances," a police source told the AFP news agency.
French interior minister Manuel Valls, who visited the centre, also described
the killings as an execution. "This is a very grave matter and this explains my
presence. This is unacceptable," he said at the scene.
Ak Jazeera's Rory Challands, reporting from Paris, said that Valls described
the killings as "precise assassination style executions".
"Three bullet casings were found near the bodies, all of them with headshot
wounds," he said.
Sources in Diyarbakir, in eastern Turkey, told Al Jazeera that one of the
women, Sakine Cansiz, was a co-founder of the PKK, the separatist group which
has been fighting a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish government.
Cansiz was one of the PKK's European representatives.
Al Jazeera's Goncha Chennai, reporting from Ankara, said that Cansiz was an
"important figure" in the PKK, especially in Europe.
Another was 32-year-old Fidan Dogan, who worked in the centre, according to its
director, Leon Edart. The third was Leyla Soylemez, described by the group as a
"young activist".
"Soylemez was an activist from the National Congress of Kurdistan, the
Brussels-based organisation," Challands said.
The three were last seen on Wednesday at the centre, which was locked by late
afternoon.
Significant timing
Andrew Finkel, a journalist and expert on Turkish politics, told Al Jazeera
that the timing of the crimes, which occured shortly after the Turkish
government resumed negotiations with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan about
disarming his group in exchange for greater rights for the country's Kurdish
minority, is very significant.
Hundreds of Kurdish protesters gathered outside the centre in Paris to protest
the killings"There appears to be serious negotiations going on between Turkish
government and the imprisoned leader or former leader of PKK," he said.
"Now these talks appear to be going somehwere. I think if we needed
confirmation that they are going somewhere is the fact that someone is trying
to disrupt those talks."
"Many Kurds in the Paris are blaming the government, but they do not really
have a history of these rogue assassinations."
"It could be that there is an element within the Turkish state that is unhappy
with the talks, but there is an equally probably explanation that its a faction
within the PKK itself."
"Not everyone in the PKK is happy to see disarmament talks going ahead."
Zubeyir Aydar, a European representative for the PKK, blamed the attack on
"dark forces" trying to interrupt the talks.
Aftewards, Huseyin Celik, the deputy chairman of the Turkey's ruling party,
said the attack appeared to be the result of "an internal feud" within the PKK,
and suggested they were an attempt to derail talks with the group.
Hundreds of Kurds gathered outside the centre on Thursday to protest, with some
chanting "we are all PKK!" and blaming Turkey for the killings.
"There was a demonstration of about 300-400 Kurds who came down to protest
against the killings," Challands said
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