A hit by agents of Turkey’s secret services or nationalist extremists? Political score-settling between Kurdish radicals or a feud over extortion money?
All three were put forward yesterday as possible motives for the Paris slaying of three Kurdish women, including Sakine Cansiz, one of the founding members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The nature of the killings — the women were all shot in the head or the back of the neck — led French Interior Minister Manuel Valls to describe them as an execution.
The women’s bodies were discovered in the early hours at a Kurdish center in the French capital. The killing came a day after Turkish media reported that jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan had agreed the outlines of a deal with the authorities in Ankara that could lead to the rebel movement laying down its weapons in March.
In return, the Kurds would receive guarantees their cultural identity would be protected and jailed Kurdish leaders would be set free. Such a deal would be highly controversial, according to analysts.
Kurdish activists protesting in Paris after news of the killings broke were adamant they must have been the work of Turkish agents, while Turkish officials suggested internal PKK divisions were a more likely explanation.
Arab News
