3 female Kurdish activists killed in Paris
Grisly slayings could be related to ongoing conflict between Turkey, separatist group
PARIS — Three Kurdish women, including a founder of a militant separatist group battling Turkish troops, were shot to death in Paris, French officials and Kurdish activists said Thursday. Hundreds of infuriated Kurds immediately flooded the neighbourhood, with some claiming the deaths were a “political assassination” and blaming Turkey.
The slayings came as Turkey was holding peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party to try to persuade it to disarm. The conflict between the group, known as the PKK, and the Turkish government has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984.
Initial reports were contradictory but pointed to a grisly crime scene Thursday. One Kurdish organization said the door of the building where the women were found was smeared with blood and that two of the women were shot in the nape of their necks and one in the stomach. French radio reported that all three were shot in the head.
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who visited the Kurdistan Information Centre in Paris where the bodies were found, said the deaths were “without doubt an execution.” He called it a “totally intolerable act.”
President François Hollande called the crime “horrible” and added he and other government officials had met regularly with one of the victims. He did not say which one.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killings. A Turkish legislator with the ruling party claimed the women were slain in a dispute between factions of the PKK. The group, which seeks self-rule for Kurds in southeast Turkey, is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and its allies, including the U.S. and the EU.
But Kurdish protesters and a Kurdish legislator in Turkey claimed the Turkish government was involved.
The slayings were being investigated by France’s antiterrorism police, although it was not clear if the women were currently linked to the PKK. Turkey’s Anadolu news agency identified one of the victims as Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the PKK in her 50s, but French officials would not formally confirm the name.
The Paris prosecutors’ office did confirm the other two victims were Leyla Soylemez and Fidan Dogan, both in their 20s. A news agency linked to the PKK, Firat News, said Dogan was the Paris representative of the Kurdistan National Congress. It said she joined the Kurdish movement in 1999.
Emotions mounted Thursday as hundreds of Kurds filled the street in Paris outside the centre where the bodies were found. Police erected barricades to try to contain the marching crowd. Some people waved Kurdish flags while others chanted angrily against the Turkish government.
“Where are French? Where is that solidarity? I think that the state of Turkey did this,” said one man in the crowd, identifying himself only as Ali.
A group of Kurdish legislators headed to Paris to try to meet with France’s interior minister. Legislator Nazmi Gur, one of the group, knew Dogan. He said she had French citizenship and frequently attended meetings at the European Parliament or the Council of Europe on matters related to Kurds.
According to the Federation of Kurdish Associations of France, the three women were alone at the centre Wednesday and were unreachable by telephone. In a statement, the group said friends went there after midnight and saw traces of blood on the door, so they broke it down and discovered the bodies.