Kurdish activists killed in Paris

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 10 Januari 2013 | 19.15

10 January 2013 Last updated at 06:27 ET
PKK co-founder Sakine Cansiz (undated file photo)

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The BBC's Christian Fraser: "Apparently the doors of the institute had been locked - when police forced their way in at 2am they found the bodies"

Three Kurdish women activists - including a co-founder of the militant nationalist PKK - have been found dead with gunshot wounds in a Kurdish information centre in Paris.

The bodies of Sakine Cansiz and two others were found on Thursday.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said the killings were "intolerable".

The motive for the shootings is unclear. Some 40,000 people have died in the 25-year conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK.

However, Turkey has recently begun talks with the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, with the aim of persuading the group to disarm.

Locked doors
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  • Sakine Cansiz: Founding member of the PKK, and first senior female member of the organisation; while jailed, led Kurdish protest movement out of Diyarbakir prison in Turkey in 1980s; after being released, worked with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in Syria; was a commander of the women's guerrilla movement in Kurdish areas of northern Iraq; later took a lower profile and became responsible for the PKK women's movement in Europe
  • Fidan Dogan: Paris representative of the Brussels-based Kurdistan National Congress (KNC) political group; responsible for lobbying the EU and diplomats on behalf the PKK via the KNC
  • Leyla Soylemez: Junior activist working on diplomatic relations and as a women's representative on behalf of the PKK

The three women were last seen inside the information centre of the Kurdish institute on Wednesday afternoon. A member of the Kurdish community tried to visit the centre but found the doors were locked.

Their bodies - all three bearing gunshot wounds - were found in the early hours on Thursday.

Along with Ms Cansiz, a second woman has been named as Fidan Dogan, 32, who worked in the information centre. She was also the Paris representative of the Brussels-based Kurdistan National Congress.

The third, named as Leyla Soylemez, was a young activist.

Members of the Kurdish community demonstrated outside the information centre as Mr Valls arrived.

The three women were "undoubtedly [summarily] executed", Mr Valls said, adding that the French authorities were determined to "shed light on this act".

"In this neighbourhood, in this Kurdish information centre, in the 10th arrondissement [district] where many Kurds live, I also came to express my sympathy to the relatives and close friends of these three women," he said.

A representative of the Federation of Kurdish Assocations in France (Feyka), Leon Edart, told the French BFM news channel that there were no CCTV cameras in the office.

The PKK took up arms in 1984, and demands greater autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, who are thought to comprise up to 20% of the population.

It is regarded by Turkey, the US and European Union as a terrorist organisation, because of its attacks on Turkish security forces and civilians.

In 2012 it stepped up its attacks, leading to the fiercest fighting in decades, but violence has subsided during the winter.


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