Turkey demands answers over Kurdish activist’s life in Paris
Turkey has demanded an explanation from Francois Hollande after the French president admitted he met frequently with an assassinated Kurdish activist connected to a declared terror organisation.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a meeting in Istanbul Saturday Photo: AP PHOTO
By Devorah Lauter in Paris
4:27PM GMT 13 Jan 2013
Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday demanded an inquiry into the Paris assassinations of three Kurdish activists linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, which has been fighting for autonomy from Turkey since 1984.
He also wanted to know why French president, Francois Hollande, said he met regularly with one of the activists in a group that is listed as a terror organisation by the European Union, the United States, and others.
“How can one regularly meet with a person or persons who are a member of an organisation that has been declared a terror organisation by the European Union and are wanted by a warrant?” asked Mr Erdogan. “What kind of policy is this?”
Reacting to the Wednesday assassinations of Kurdish activists Fidan Dogan, Leyla Söylemez and Sakine Cansiz in the office of a Kurdish information centre and official headquarters for the PKK, in Paris, Mr Hollande said: “It’s horrible,” and that he knew one of the victims, because “a lot of politicians” knew her, and “she regularly came to meet us”.
Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the PKK, and widely believed to be the prime target of the killers, was arrested in Germany in 2007, and then let go, despite requests for her extradition to Turkey, said Mr Erdogan.
“We informed the French Interpol office in November 2012 that she was in Paris. Unfortunately, France took no action,” he said. According to the head of the Frankfurt-based Kurdish Centre for Public Information, Ms Cansiz received asylum from France in 1998.
By Sunday, Mr Hollande’s office still had no comment in response to the public query from Turkey. The incident could strain already fragile ties between France and Turkey.
The two countries have also been at odds over a French attempt at criminalising denial of the 1915 Armenian genocide by Ottoman Turks. The bill was finally struck down by France’s high court nearly a year ago, but Mr Hollande has said he would like to reintroduce a modified version.
Some 15,000 people including Kurds from across Europe, protested in Paris on Saturday against the assassination of the activists, and accused Turkey of playing a hand in the deaths.
The three assassination victims were found with several bullet wounds to the head, while their handbags were not touched, according to French reports, further suggesting the crime was politically motivated. French investigators are also not ruling out the possibility that the killings were the result of opposition within the PKK itself, as Turkish officials have suggested.
The deaths come just as reports surfaced that rebel PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan had agreed to begin peace talks with Turkey, where the Kurdish rebel groups have been fighting for autonomy.
via Turkey demands answers over Kurdish activist’s life in Paris – Telegraph.