Several thousands of people demonstrated in Paris on Saturday (January 7) to demand justice and a speedier investigation into the 2013 murder of three Kurdish activists. Sakine Cansiz, a founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the early 1980s, and two other Kurdish women were found dead in the Kurdish Information Centre in Paris in January 2013, all shot at close range.
According to police estimates, some 5,500 people marched through central Paris demanding French authorities find out who was behind the killing of the three women."Today, the Kurdish people are raising once again the question: "Where is the justice?". We want justice and truth," Kurdish activist Nursel Kilic said. "We will continue our protest until justice is done," Kilic added.
Many protesters were held flags with the pictures of three activists and Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK militant leader, who has been in prison on an island near Istanbul, demanding justice and freedom for him.
"Well, we can't separate the case of Ocalan (from the case of Kurdish activists' killings). Because Ocalan was and still is the leader of Kurdish people and he is the one who launched this movement, he is the one who trained the militants with his ideology, and we are demanding his freedom," protester Sahin Polat said.The trial of the main suspect of triple murder, 34-year old Turkish national Omer Guney, was due to open on Jan 23, but Guney - who has claimed his innocence - died of a brain tumor in December.
Judicial sources have said he is thought to have acted under instructions from people in Turkey, and that those people may have had connections to the Turkish intelligence services.Turkey has denied any involvement in the murders, suggesting instead they were related to internal disputes in the PKK, which has fought a bloody 30-year struggle for Kurdish autonomy from Turkey.The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and European Union.
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