How judicial probe dodged real truth behind murder of Kurdish activists in Paris
By Jacques Massey
In January 2013 three female Kurdish activists were gunned down in cold blood at their offices in Paris. The chief – and only - official suspect will stand trial in France early this year for their murder. However, despite an investigation by three examining magistrates the people who ordered the killings have never officially been identified. Instead, political, diplomatic and security concerns appear to have blunted the French judiciary's probe. Nonetheless, writes Jacques Massey, it is clear that the confrontational approach adopted by Turkish president president Recep Tayyip Erdogan towards the Kurds lies behind the shootings.
On January 9th, 2013, three women were shot and killed at the offices of the Kurdistan information centre at 147, rue La Fayette in central Paris. The three were Sakine Cansiz, aged 54, a co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in 1978, who had political refugee status, Leyla Saylemez, aged 25, who had just spent two years in the war-torn zone on the Turkish-Iraqi border and 29-year-old Fidan Dogan.
