By Lucas Eaves | 01/14/2013 | War and Foreign Policy

1×1.trans Assassination of Kurdish Militants Raises Tensions in Turkey

Credit: Thibault Camus

The assassinations of Kurdish militants, including one of the founders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, last week in Paris is reviving the tensions around a conflict that could affect the whole Middle East region.

Among the three women found dead in the Information Center on Kurdistan in Paris was Sakine Cansiz, a “legend among PKK members” and a very close friend to imprisoned PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan. These assassinations coincide with the resumption of secret peace talks between the Turkish authorities and Öcalan, and a potential agreement is said to be within reach.

The Kurdish people, who constitute around 20 percent of the Turkish population, have been been fighting for the independence and autonomy of their region for the last 30 years. The conflict with Ankara has resulted in 40,000 dead, with 500 last year alone.

After the failed negotiations between Öcalan and the Turkish government that lasted from 2005 to 2011, the conflict between the PKK and the security forces resumed, leading to the worst casualties since the end of 1990.

These assassinations could put in jeopardy the peace process and a number of leads as to who could have sponsored the killings are emerging:

PKK Internal Feud

It is the lead favored by Ankara for the moment as the Turkish Prime Minister mentioned that the victims must have known their killer since a special key is needed to enter the building where the bodies were found.

More general elements also support this lead. After 13 years in jail, Öcalan’s capacity to negotiate an agreement is being doubted by some leaders in the PKK and some divergence among different branches of the Kurdish movement could explain these killings.

However, the capacity of disgruntled PKK leaders to carry thought such operation in a foreign country is doubtful.

Turkish Nationalistic Groups

Underground, ultra-nationalistic groups, such as “Deep State,” are against the idea of giving more rights to the Kurdish people and have great interests in jeopardizing the peace process.

The extreme right party, the Nationalist Movement Party, which is the only party that opposes the negotiations between the government and Öcalan, maintain a certain influence among the Turkish diaspora around Europe. If their capacity to organize an assassination is unknown, this is the lead favored by the PKK.

Syria and the Syrian Kurdish

Both the Syrian government and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian Kurdish party, have interests in seeing the negotiation fail.

With Turkey being Syria’s biggest foe, the Assad regime has let the Kurdish rebellion grow stronger by letting a massive amount of troops enter Syria from Iraqi Kurdistan and operate at the Turkish border.

The Assad regime benefits from this because the Kurdish people have not joined the Syrian rebellion and by giving them control of Syria’s northern border with Turkey, the regime has been able to move the Syrian army to the south to fight the rebels.

A peace agreement between the PKK and Turkey would also harm the PYD as they would lose there strategic importance in the eyes of the Damascus.

Other Potential Lead

Iran would also have interest in seeing this conflict in Turkey continue since the two countries are in direct opposition on the Syrian issue.

Iran would also not approve of the creation of an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey which could encourage Kurdish people in Iran, who have been repressed for years by the Iranian government, to seek a similar situation.

As the relationship between Iran and Iraq is improving, Iran could have helped its ally that looks unfavorably on the growing relationship between the semi-autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan and Ankara, and the oil deals that develop from it.

The results of the investigation by the French police will be made public in a few weeks and the effect of these assassinations on the peace process will depend on which lead prevails.

via Assassination of Kurdish Militants Raises Tensions in Turkey- IVN.

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.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on France on Saturday to “immediately” clarify the killing of three Kurdish activists who were shot dead in Paris.

He also asked French President Francois Hollande to explain why he was meeting with members of the outlawed PKK.

“France must immediately clarify this incident,” Erdogan said in televised remarks. “Also, the French head of state must explain immediately to the French, Turkish and world public why … he is in communication with these terrorists,” he added.

Hollande had said the murder of Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Soylemez was “terrible”, adding that he knew one of the Kurdish women and that she “regularly met us”.

The three were found dead on Thursday at the Kurdistan Information Centre in the French capital’s 10th district, after last being seen alive at the centre at midday on Wednesday.

Cansiz was a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which took up arms in 1984 for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey and is branded a terrorist organisation by Ankara and much of the international community.

“How can he regularly meet with these people who are members of a group listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and who are wanted under red bulletin (issued by Interpol)?” Erdogan asked, referring to the French president.

“What sort of a policy is it?”

The Turkish leader repeatedly accused some European member states including France and Germany of obstructing Ankara’s fight against the separatist PKK, saying that they were letting PKK members freely circulate on their soil.

“Sakine Cansiz was arrested in Germany in 2007. She was later released despite Turkey’s demand for her extradition,” Erdogan said.

“We informed the French Interpol in November 2012 and said the terrorist was in Paris. Unfortunately, France has not taken any steps,” (to extradite Cansiz to Turkey) he added.

The PKK warned that it would hold France responsible if the killers were not quickly found, as Ankara said the slayings bore the hallmarks of an internal feud, noting that the victims appeared to have given the killer or killers access to the centre.

Erdogan insisted on Saturday that an internal feud in the PKK was most likely behind the slayings.

“For God’s sake, I’m asking. Is this terrorist organisation innocent? Hasn’t it carried out such executions thus far?”

The local media reported on Saturday that Turkey’s spy agency has launched an investigation into the execution-style killings in Paris.

“The relevant unit of the organisation is investigating the incidents. We have to wait a couple of days to get a clearer picture,” a source from the Turkish secret service was quoted as saying by the English-language Hurriyet Daily News.

The Turkish premier upheld his earlier suggestion that the slayings could be aimed at derailing peace talks between Ankara and the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

“We are proceeding in a determined fashion. We are hopeful, optimistic and looking positively to the process but we are at the same time cautious and careful,” Erdogan said of the peace talks.

“God willing, this (Kurdish) problem will be resolved: today or tomorrow, sooner or later.”

The killings came days after Turkish media reported that Turkey and the PKK leadership had agreed a roadmap to end the three-decade old Kurdish insurgency that has claimed more than 45,000 lives.

The deal was reportedly reached during a new round of talks between Ankara and Ocalan, which the government acknowledges have been taking place with the aim of disarming the rebels.

via Turkey Demands France Clarify Slayings | PKKH.tv.