Turkish Man Charged in Paris Murders of Three PKK Women Leaders
Source: Bloomberg
A 30-year-old Turkish man linked to the Kurdish militant group PKK was charged today in the Jan. 10 killings in Paris of three women leaders of the organization.
He was charged with murders linked to terrorism and involvement in a terrorist ring, and is being held in jail while investigators search for motives and to determine whether he acted alone, according to French prosecutors.
The man, who lives in France and acted as a driver for one of the women, could be the author, or one of the authors, of the crime, Paris public prosecutor Francois Molins said today. A second suspect was released without charge.
The victims included Sakine Cansiz, one of five people who founded the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in 1978.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-21/turkish-man-charged-in-paris-murders-of-three-pkk-women-leaders.html
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)on this? Because that is who I'd be looking at
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)Turkey has denied involvement. They are talking to Ocalan(spell?) in jail.
The guy the French have seems small potatoes, a driver, the sort of guy you suborn to carry out this sort of assassination.
I don't think I should speculate, though Kurdish politics comes to mind, but the lack of noise about this from any of the players seems "interesting".
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)but the all around silence is curious
bemildred
(90,061 posts)azurnoir
(45,850 posts)Despite the assassinations of three PKK representatives in Paris, Ankara is pressing ahead with its dialogue with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in an attempt to end its Kurdish problem once and for all. The assumption is that by dealing openly with Ocalan, who controls a relatively monolithic PKK, the groups militants will disarm willingly. A more inclusive negotiating process that engages Kurdish political representatives and Turkish civilian leaders also is expected to encourage a settlement and sideline PKK hardliners.
The problem is that the PKK represents more than Ocalan and Kurdish national rights in Turkey. Since Ocalans arrest in 1999, the radical nationalist group has expanded and entrenched its networks across regional states and continents. It has also become lodged in Middle East uprisings and regional proxy wars that have given local leaders new forms of support, prestige and opportunities to mobilize. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogans challenge, therefore, is not only using Ocalan as a peacemaker, combating terrorism and creating conditions inside Turkey to appease Kurds, but also ameliorating relations with regional states that are empowering the PKK and its party offshoots.
Indeed, securing Ocalans support for a Kurdish-Turkish peace process is essential. Ocalan remains the uncontested leader of the PKK and can influence party members behavior from his prison cell in Imrali. There is rarely a PKK demonstration in the region or the diaspora without Ocalans photo, emphasizing the continuity of his well-known personality cult. It was only after Ocalan called an end to the two-month hunger strike by dozens of Kurdish prisoners and politicians last November that the protests finally ended. Murat Karayilan, head of the PKKs Kandil group, could not have done that.
Yet the PKK has become larger than its symbolic leader. Even if the organization no longer calls for an independent Kurdistan but for democratic autonomy in Turkey, it has become embedded in a growing trans-border Kurdish nationalist movement that is now simultaneously active in three geographically contiguous states: Turkey, Iraq and Syria. The PKK also has benefited from regional uprisings and associated power vacuums by securing sanctuary in weakened states. Since their expulsion from Syria and transfer to the Kandil mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan after 1999, PKK leaders and cadres have been running operations and consolidating networks on the ground without Ocalans directives. These leaders and their fighters may not necessarily or fully respond to Ocalans instructions to make peace.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/01/ocalan-tuks-pkk.html#ixzz2IdlR9b38
interesting indeed
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)I just posted this in late breaking news: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014375885
The link I posted doesn't say so, but CNN International today said those Syrian Kurds are allied with a Kurdish party affiliated with the PKK.
Ah, Middle Eastern politics...
bemildred
(90,061 posts)This is not my subject, but Ocalan is the guy to watch, since they are talking to him, and the fact they are talking to him when this happens ...
Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)Nobody would have cared and he would have probably received a medal for it.
REP
(21,691 posts)It's weird enough that a Turk was a member of the PKK; there's not much love for the PKK with many Turks.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Many Turks (turkish citizens) are also Kurds.
REP
(21,691 posts)the impression I was left with was the driver/killer was a Turkish Turk, hence my confusion. If that is indeed the case, I'm suspicious - I'm no fan of the current government, and will quickly jump to (tinfoil) conclusions. If he is a Kurd, well, the PKK has a history of infighting.
*well, born within of course - not tourists, etc.
MADem
(135,425 posts)If they mean an ethnic Turk, it makes no damn sense. That's like a Hatfield driving around McCoy women.
I don't know what the scoop is, here, but could they be looking for an easy solution to the crime, and a way to wrap up a network of dissenters in one fell swoop?
I know the French were none too pleased when Persian mafia/Ayatullah hitmen were running around Paris shooting the remnants of the Shah's entourage, and they didn't try real hard to catch people who did it, either.