Turkey
Who was behind PKK assassination in Paris?
10
January, 18:54
As peace
talks got under way between the Kurdistan Workers Party (Parti Karkerani
Kurdistan or PKK) and the Turkish Government three women associated with the
PKK including a co-founder were found assassinated in Paris France. The
heinous crime is currently being investigated but there is speculation,
mostly from the Turkish side that the executions have to do with the fact
the PKK and the Turkish authorities have begun peace talks to end the
decades old conflict.
Sakine
Cansiz a female co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (Parti Karkerani
Kurdistan or PKK) militant group and two other women have been found dead in
Paris. All three of the women were shot in the head execution style with one
of the victims also being shot in the stomach.
Other than
Cansiz, according to The Firat News Agency, the victims include Fidan Dogan,
a representative of the Brussels based National Congress of Kurdistan and
Leyla Soylemez who is described as a young activist.
Shortly
after midnight on Thursday morning, when the women were reportedly missed,
several workers went to the Information Centre of Kurdistan, an institute
located in the 10th district of Paris, near the center of the city, where
the women had last been seen.
According
to the website of the institute it is “… an independent, non-political,
secular organization, embracing Kurdish intellectuals and artists from
different horizons as well as Western specialists on Kurdish Studies.”
When the
employees arrived and noticed blood on the locked doors of the
establishment, the workers broke in and discovered the three bodies of the
women who had all been shot in the head.
The Firat
News Agency reports that the murder weapon was believed to have been fitted
with a silencer. However did not elaborate on whether it was found at the
scene or not.
Leon
Edart, a spokesperson for The Federation of Kurdish Associations in France
(FEYKA) told the French BFM news channel that there were no surveillance
cameras in building where the crime took place.
Currently
there are no suspects but Turkish authorities are saying that the executions
were an internal PKK issue. There is speculation, mostly from the Turkish
side, that the executions have to do with the fact the PKK and the Turkish
authorities have begun peace talks to end the decades old conflict.
Recently
the Turkish Government began peace talks with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah
Ocalan, who is being held by the Turkish authorities on the prison island of
Imrali located off the coast from Istanbul.
On
Wednesday there were reports in the Turkish media that an agreement had been
reached on a plan to end the conflict which has raged on since 1984 and has
claimed over 40,000 lives.
There are
many on all sides to the conflict that are against any kind of a peace
settlement. These include Turkish elements who do not want to see the Kurds
receive any kind of recognition or autonomy and among radical elements of
the PKK itself who do not want to see any concessions made to Ankara and who
believe that any kind of a peace plan will include giving up certain
demands.
Police
have so far not announced any leads, theories or suspects. According to the
AFP a police source sated: “The scene [of the crime] could give rise to the
idea that this was an execution, but the investigation will have to
establish the exact circumstances of this incident."
French
Interior Minister Manuel Valls who arrived on the scene shortly after the
bodies were discovered said the killings were "intolerable".
“The three
women were undoubtedly executed", Valls said.
Valls said
the French authorities would get to the bottom of the crime and that he had
come to express his sympathy to the relatives and close friends of the three
murdered women.
It is
important to recall that Turkey recently authorized military incursions into
Iran, supposedly for operations where the Turkish Regular Army is in hot
pursuit of PKK militants.
With
military build ups by NATO and the US in the region and the constant search
for a pretext to invade Iran and Syria, there are many of those actors who
would also see any kind of peace as detrimental to planned provocations and
optional scenarios which will allow for an invasion of either Iran or Syria.
According
to Reuters Remzi Kartal, a Kurdistan National Congress leader, said: "This
is a political crime, there is no doubt about it. Ocalan and the Turkish
government have started a peace process, they want to engage in dialogue,
but there are parties that are against resolving the Kurdish question and
want to sabotage the peace process."
Kurdish PKK Party
co-founder, 2 activists murdered in Paris
A
co-founder of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and two female activists were
murdered today in downtown Paris, police report.
PKK’s
Sakine Cansiz, Kurdish National Congress Paris representative Fidan Doğan
and a young Kurdish activist, Leyla Söylemez, were found dead late on
Wednesday night by their friends who became concerned after no one picked up
the receiver in the Center’s office.
The women
were found outside the Kurdish institute in the French capital. All the
victims appear to have been shot in the head by a gun with a silencer.
Police say the murder took place about 3pm on Wednesday.
Kurdish
community has referred to the triple assassination as an “execution.”
Agence
France-Presse quoted an unidentified police official as saying the
circumstances of the killings “could lead to the conclusion that this was an
execution but inquiries will determine the precise nature of this drama.”
Police
officials said a murder investigation had been opened. The bodies and three
shell casings were found in a room at the institute. The women were all said
to hold Turkish passports.
French
Interior Minister Manuel Valls called the killings "intolerable".
In the
meantime, hundreds have taken to the streets of the French capital, after
the Federation of Kurdish Associations in France (Feyka) called for a
demonstration in Paris.
The motive
for the shootings is unclear. Some 40,000 people have died in the 25-year
conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK.
However,
Turkey has recently begun talks with the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan,
with the aim of persuading the group to disarm.
Paris: 3 Kurdish women
shot in head
Three
Kurdish women were found killed with a gunshot to the head early Thursday
inside the Kurdish Institute of Paris, a police source said.
The women
were found outside the Kurdish institute in the French capital, and one of
the victims’ names has already been disclosed: 32-year-old Fidan Dogan
reportedly worked for the institute.
One of the
women was 32-year-old Fidan Dogan who worked in the institute's information
centre, according to its director, Leon Edart.
The
identities of the other two women, who were reportedly Kurdish activists but
did not work at the Institute, were not immediately available.
The three
were last seen mid-day on Wednesday at the centre, which was found locked by
late afternoon, according to Edart.
NATO Pushes Erdogan into a “Saakashvili”
15 October 2012, 14:17
In the
grounding and confiscation of part of the cargo of a passenger jet flying
from Moscow to Syria and the beating of passengers and crew, many say Turkey
committed an illegal act of air-piracy. Has Ankara now decided to take on
Moscow? Not likely, but things are not always as they seem, and the hand of
NATO and the US are more than just discernable here.
Turkey’s
forced grounding of a Syrian Air Airbus A320, with approximately 30
passengers on board has been called an act of air-piracy by the Syrian
authorities and Russia has stated the search and seizure of part of the
cargo were illegal. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said the incident
endangered the lives of Russian citizens aboard the plane. Lavrov has also
reiterated that Moscow is still waiting for an official explanation from
Turkey as to why it refused to allow Russian diplomats aboard the plane to
meet with the passengers and crew.
For
Turkey it is one thing that it continuously occupies Northern Iraq and that
it has decided to launch attacks into Syria but it is a whole nother game
when it decides to openly take on the Russian Federation, which like it or
not is still a powerful superpower and one which Turkey depends on for
everything from gas to tourism.
Russia is
also not indifferent to Turkey and has worked with Turkey for years on a
number of fronts including plans for a section of the South Stream gas
pipeline and plans to assist Turkey in building its first nuclear power
plant, both very important projects for both countries and not likely to be
affected by this single incident, according to statements by officials on
both sides, including Foreign Minister Lavrov.
What is
troubling is that Turkey would so openly and blatantly commit such a
provocative act right in front of the eyes of the entire world as if daring
Russia to react and seeming to challenge the authority of the superpower.
What one has to wonder is what has emboldened Turkey to such a point. Could
it be that Turkey was pushed into doing so by NATO to test the waters for
the invasion of Syria that they so crave? That is one possibility.
Another
possibility as to the reasons behind the attack which the world’s press has
not looked at but which to me seems quite possible is that Turkey and NATO
were after the technology on the plane. It is critical to recall that NATO
believes it was Russian Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air defensive missile
technology which uses the latest cutting edge system of phased-array radar
for both target acquisition and tracking, which was responsible for taking
out the Turkish American-made F-4 Phantom on June 22nd.
The
Russian Foreign Ministry has stated and media outlets are reporting that
there was dual-use radar equipment parts on the plane, all shipped legally
and not in any violation of current international conventions. We can
postulate, that perhaps the Turkish side and their NATO and CIA intelligence
contacts believed that these parts were for air-defense systems being used
or upgraded by Syria. This would explain why Turkey took such a risk.
If NATO
and the US are preparing for an invasion of Syria, then one of the first
things they need to knock out are the country’s radar and air-defense
systems. If the F-4 Phantom was a test run, then Western technology proved
to be impotent in evading Syrian air defenses and Russian technology.
The fact
that Turkey so openly and blatantly committed such an illegal act, points to
the fact that there are other hands behind this than what we are all privy
to and as we know NATO and the US are for the most part calling all the
shots in Turkey. Shall we once again recall Obama and his baseball bat?
Underlining the illegality of Turkey’s actions and the fact that they knew
they were acting illegally are several events that occurred on the plane and
several facts surrounding the incident. 1: the crew and passengers were
beaten, 2: the Turkish side attempted to force the passengers and crew to
sign documents saying the plane made an emergency landing, 3: the documents
did not mention that the military aircraft were used to ground the plane and
the crew and passengers were ordered not to mention them, 4: Russian
diplomats were not allowed onto the plane to provide assistance to Russian
citizens and 5: the plane was released without part of the cargo on board,
which amounts to an act of air-piracy and theft as the parts were being
shipped legally and were properly documented.
Depending
on what exactly was on board it might take days to weeks for the parts to be
copied, studied or tampered with depending on what the goal of the operation
is, and have no doubt this was an “operation”. Everything from Erdogan’s
statements about “intelligence”, to military personal who beat passengers,
to military air-craft being used to force the Airbus A320 passenger jet to
the ground, to the already prepared witness statements, point to a carefully
planned operation.
Logic
tells us that it is highly-unlikely that Turkey, independently, would take
on Russia. Turkey in this case is clearly being manipulated and used by the
US and NATO, both now and as the fall-guy for the upcoming invasion of
Syria. We should recall that arms, mercenaries and terrorists are being
spring-boarded into Syria from Turkish bases, and even the mortar that
recently killed the Turkish citizens on the border allowing Turkey to begin
shelling inside Syrian territory was NATO issue. Obama and his baseball bat made it clear to the world who is pulling the strings in Turkey, and like in Georgia, the West’s military intentions for the region are clear. Turkey, like Georgia, has become emboldened and reckless in its bid to please its western “partners”, maybe it is time for the Turkish opposition and the Turkish people to step up to the plate and decide they will not be the fall-guy and the patsy in another resource invasion by Washington? Or maybe not.
|