3 Kurdish women 'executed' at Paris center, French interior minister says

This undated and unlocated photo provided Thursday, Jan.10, 2013 by the Kurdish Cultural center in Paris shows Sakine Cansiz, founding member of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. Three Kurdish women, including Cansiz, were "executed" at a Kurdish center in Paris, the interior minister said Thursday. (AP Photo/ Kurdish Cultural Center)

PARIS – Three Kurdish women, including one of the founders of a militant group battling Turkish troops since 1984, were "executed" at a Kurdish center in Paris, the interior minister said Thursday. The news prompted angry crowds of Kurds to flood into the area.

Turkey's Anadolu news agency identified one of the victims as Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. Turkey and its Western allies, including the United States and the European Union, consider the group a terrorist organization.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who visited the pro-Kurdish center in Paris where the bodies were found, said the deaths were "without doubt an execution." He called it a "totally intolerable act."

RTL radio reported that all three women were shot in the head, but French police would not immediately confirm the report.

Emotions mounted as hundreds of Kurds filled the street in Paris where the bodies were found at the Kurdistan Information Center. Police erected barricades to try to contain the crowd. Some people waved Kurdish flags while others chanted angrily against the Turkish government.

An online site for Kurdish youth called on all Kurds and "friends of Kurds to come to Paris." The site, jeunessekurde.fr, showed three photos of the slain women. It identified the other two as Fidan Dogan, who reportedly was chief of the information center, and Leyla Soylemez.

Police removed the bodies from the center after an initial investigation.

The conflict between the PKK and Turkish troops has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the rebels -- who are seeking self-rule for Kurds in southeast Turkey -- took up arms in 1984. Turkey has resumed talks with the PKK with the goal of convincing the group to disarm.

Kurds make up more than 20 percent of Turkey's 75 million people.

The three women were alone at the center on Wednesday and were unreachable by telephone, said Leon Edart, an official of the Federation of Kurdish Associations of France.

Friends went there after midnight and saw traces of blood on the door which they then broke down, discovering the bodies, he said.

Police and firemen reached the bodies about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, a police official told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give his name in keeping with policy.

In Turkey, Selahattin Demirtas, the leader of a Kurdish political party in Turkey's parliament, called on the French government to shed light on the killings "without delay" and in a way that "leaves no room" for doubt.

"We want it to be known that that these assassinations which were carried in the busiest area of Paris cannot be covered up," Demirtas said.

Huseyin Celik, the deputy chairman of Turkey's ruling party, said the attack appeared to be the result of "an internal feud" within the PKK, but did not provide any evidence to back his statement.

Celik also suggested the slayings were an attempt to derail the peace talks.

France has a large Kurdish community concentrated in the Paris region and French police have occasionally arrested Kurds suspected of illegally financing the PKK. The arrests have also followed chiding by Turkish leaders claiming that Europeans were not doing enough to fight terrorism.

Turkish officials say the PKK raises funds through extortion or other criminal activities in European countries that have a large number of Kurdish immigrants.