Turkey (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Three Kurdish Officials Killed in Paris Attack
Thursday, January 10, 2013 at 12:56
Ali Yenidunya in Abdullah Ocalan, EA Middle East and Turkey, Fidan Dogan, Huseyin Celik, Kendal Nezan, Kurdish Institute of Paris, Leyla Sonmez, Middle East and Iran, PKK, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Sakine Cansiz, Selahattin Demirtas, Turkey, Zubeyir Aydar


1623 GMT: Turkey. The Chairman of the Federation of Kurdish Associations of France, Mehmet Ulker, claiming to quote French policemen, has said that the Paris killings were carried out by more than one professional.

1613 GMT: Turkey. The Vice-Chairman of the pro-Kurdish BDP party, Gulten Kisanak, puts out a warning:

Even if those murderers get lost like a mole, they will be held accountable. This massacre is not an ordinary one. Clearly, it is a political murder. It is a trap set for the solution of the Kurdish question. Whoever attempts to cover, justify or distort this, he/she will be the murderer. Whoever, while there is no proof, calls the murder of three revolutionist women who were on duty to carry out their people's struggle as an internal execution and distorts it, he/she is either murderer, or knows the murderers or wants to protect the murderers.

1605 GMT: Turkey. With the killing of Sakine Cansiz, the four living co-founders of the Kurdish insurgency PKK are Abdullah Ocalan --- who is imprisoned on Imrali Island --- Duran Kalkan, Haydar Kaytan, and Cemil Bayik.

1525 GMT: Turkey. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the killing of three female Kurdish officials in Paris could be due to "internal payoff and provocation", but then added: "We should wait until light is shed on it."

In contrast, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said, "I condemn this savagery. I am really sorry. We want to fight with terror within the laws."1515 GMT: Turkey. The Kurdish political coalition KCK --- illegal in Turkey --- has issued a statement about the killings in Paris, "This attack can only be done by sadist, racist and chauvinist forces raised by Turkish colonialism".

1510 GMT: Turkey. A warning of today's attack? On 26 September, the head of the Joint Staff, Necdet Ozel told Turkiye Newspaper's Nuh Albayrak: "They [the PKK's highest officals] are protected well. We are trying to neutralize them."

1255 GMT: Turkey. An attack in Paris, on an office of the Kurdistan Information Bureau of the Kurdish National Congress, has killed three women, inculding Sakine Cansiz, one of the founders of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Two representatives of the Brussels-based Kurdish National Congress, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Sonmez, were also slain by unknown assailants.

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Turkey's ruling AKP Party, which is currently in negotiations with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, immediately denied any involvement. Vice Chairman Huseyin Celik said that the incident looked like an "internal feud".

The pro-Kurdish BDP party's co-chairman Selahattin Demirtas strongly criticised the government's language: "By the virtue of the sensitive process, instead of taking a step in the presence of French authorities to illuminate the massacre, it labels it as the job of the organisation and closes the file. I am asking this; how can we know that the ones who give these statements have not planned it? Is your worry due to this?"

The PKK's Europe representative, Zubeyir Aydar, said that the operation was carried out because of the ongoing peace process, implying that the Turkish "deep state" had intervened.

The Paris Kurdish Institute's chairman Kendal Nezan was more cautious, saying that the violence was the outcome of extremists on both sides.

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