INSTITUT KURDE DE PARIS Information and liaison bulletin n°334 january 2013 The publication of this Bulletin enjoys a subsidy from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGCID) aqnd the Fonds d’action et de soutien pour l’intégration et la lutte contre les discriminations (The Fund for action and support of integration and the struggle against discrimination) This bulletin is issued in French and English Price per issue : France: 6 € — Abroad : 7,5 € Annual subscribtion (12 issues) France : 60 € — Elsewhere : 75 € Monthly review Directeur de la publication : Mohamad HASSAN Numéro de la Commission Paritaire : 659 15 A.S. ISBN 0761 1285 INSTITUT KURDE, 106, rue La Fayette - 75010 PARIS Tel. : 01-48 24 64 64 - Fax : 01-48 24 64 66 www.fikp.org E-mail: bulletin@fikp.org Information and liaison bulletin Kurdish Institute of Paris Bulletin N° 334 January 2013 • PARIS: THREE KURDISH WOMEN ACTIVISTS ASSASSINATED. • TURKEY: THE PRIME MINISTER INITIATES NEGOTIATIONS WITH ÖCALAN. • HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH PUBLISHES ITS REPORT FOR 2012. • IRAN: TWO KURDS AND AN AZERI ARE THREATENED WITH EXECUTION. • VIENNA: A MONUMENT IN GHASSEMLOU’S MEMORY IS DUE TO BE ERECTED. PARIS: THREE KURDISH WOMEN ACTIVISTS ASSASSINATED n 9 January, the bod- the Interior, Manuel Valls, tionary movements of the Elazig ies of three Kurdish described these acts as “execu- student circles and, in 1976 she women, active sup- tions”. joined the Kurdish revolutionary porters of the PKK, movement. Soon after having O were found at the Coming a few days after the taken part in the founding offices of the Kurdistan statement by the Turkish Prime Congress of the PKK, on 28 Information Centre (KIC), the Minister that direct negotiations September 1978, she was arrest- European communications and were beginning between ed along with several others. In public relations office of the Abdullah Ocalan and Hakan the atmosphere of terror that fol- PKK. They had been killed by Fidan, the Director of the lowed the 12 September 1980 several bullets in the head. Not Turkish MIT (Intelligence), these coup d’état, she was subjected to having heard from them since murders were immediately ferocious torture in Diyarbekir midday, some Kurdish friends viewed as an attempt to cupper prison, one of torturers even forced open the doors at about the process of settling the con- going so far as to mutilate her midnight and found their bod- flict. breasts, as punishment, accord- ies. They were Sakine Cansiz, a ing to her cell mates, for her not European level leader of the Sakine Cassiz was, naturally only being Kurdish but also of PKK, Fidan Dogan, who was described as the main target, the the Alevi faith. manager of the KIC and Leyla two others seem to have only Soylemez, a work placement been eliminated because they Released in 1991, she joined the assistant. were there too. PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan and fought in the guerrillas. Coming Visiting the scene in the course Born in 1957, in Dersim, Sakine into conflict with several of the of the morning, the Minister for Cansız rapidly joined the revolu- military commanders, she had to • 2 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 334 • January 2013 give up here position in opened by interphone indicates just an extension of the Kurdistan and go to Europe, that the women knew their mur- Ergenekon affair. though without any serious con- derers and had themselves flict as she had always been a opened the door. The position of Two other States have also been close and loyal supporter of the bodies also showed that they suspected of being involved in Ocalan. She secured the status of were killed by surprise, or at these assassinations, as neither political refugee in France but least without putting up any has any interest in seeing a truce was more often lived in resistance. between the PKK and Turkey — Germany. namely Syria and Iran. When the murder was Fidan Doğan, was also an Alevi announced, hundreds of However, on 20 January, it was Kurd, from the Maras Elbistan Kurdish activists gathered in announced that two Kurds, close district, a region that at the end front of 147, rue La Fayette to the KIC were being detained. of 1978 experience a period of shouting slogans accusing One was very quickly released pogroms against the Alevi com- Turkey. while the other, Omer Guney, munity, orchestrated by the described as Sakine Cansız’s Turkish extreme Right. Born in However, although sponta- “occasional” chauffer was 1982, she emigrated, with her neously pinpointed by the charged with homicide, the Paris family, to France where she Kurdish activists, the Turkish Public Prosecutor, Francçois grew up and started her High State’s responsibility has left Molins declaring at a Press con- School education. She dropped nearly all the observers familiar ference that there were enough these to join the PKK in 1999, the with the “Kurdish case” in serious factors for considering year in which Ocalan was arrest- Turkey rather sceptical. It is not that he was at least one of the ed and the PKK announced its easy to see what interest the perpetrators of these murders, first unilateral ceasefire. She was AKP government could have in even if the possibility that he active in the political and scuppering negotiations that it was not alone was not complete- European branch of the PKK as had just initiated itself. ly discarded. Traces of AND, from 2002 and was in charge of corresponding to Guney’s had the KIC at the time of her death. Another avenue was immediate- been found on one of the car- ly suggested — that of internal tridge cases. As for Leyla Söylemez, she was divisions in the PKK. This was not an Alevi but came from a first raised by Recep Tayyip According to the Prosecutor, Yezidi family from Lice Erdogan, who stated that these Guney would have declared, Province, and was born and assassinations were of a “villain- when auditioned by the police, grew up in Mersin (Mersin ous character” linked to the that he had taken Sakine Cansız Adana houses many Kurds PKK’s internal dissentions, espe- to the KIC in the morning of deported from their homes after cially by the “factions” hostile to Wednesday the 9th and that he their villages had been the peace process. The AKP had left the premises’ at about destroyed by the Turkish Army). spokesman, Hüseyin Çelik, even 11. However, the monitoring Her family emigrated to recalled the many internal politi- cameras show him leaving the Germany in the 90s. She studied cal executions that have pep- building at 12.56, which corre- architecture for a year before pered the PKK’s history, sponds with the time slot in joining the Kurdish movement which the murders were com- in 2006, passing a year and a half Similarly, and almost as a mirror mitted. He left the KIC at about in the PKK camps in Iraq and image, it the avenue of the 1 pm carrying a case in which returning to Europe in 2010. Turkish extreme Right national- traces of explosive were found, ists was quickly raised by the so that it was the monitoring The victims were all shot in the Kurdish side, each camp, cameras, of whose existence he head, Sakine Cansız and Leyla Kurdish or Turkish mutually was unaware, that have Söylemez receiving three bullets accusing the “hawks” of the “betrayed” him. each and Fidan Dogan four, one other side. The fact that there of which was in the mouth, does exists a “deep State” with a Omer Guney, 30 years of age, apparently from the same history of collusion with extreme was at first described as a weapon, a 7,65mm. The fact that Right circles, and the mafia, and “Kurd” by the authorities and access to the upper floors of the having protection at high levels the French press. However, the building is only through an in the State was laid on the table, pro-Kurdish media hastened to inside door that can only be some considering that this was “reveal” that the suspect was not n° 334 • January 2013 Information and liaison bulletin • 3• Kurdish but Turkish, as if the part in demonstrations and enabled him to receive, accord- fact of being Turkish were social activities and paying “the ing to his lawyer, a handicapped incompatible with being pro- revolutionary tax” are not persons allowance (Liberation, PKK or even a party activist. Yet expected to conform to the rules 11/2/13). there have always been some and duties incumbent on the Turks in the PKK and, in the 90s, “cadres”. They marry, have chil- More disturbing, the enquiry one of them was even officially dren and do not leave to fight in seems to show that he visited President of the FEYKA the mountains or lead the Turkey several times in 2012 — a (Federation of Kurdish Societies monastic existence of the fact that he concealed from the in France). However, it is true European level cadres. Nor are Kurds, saying he was leaving to that pro-Kurdish Turks are gen- they involved in the party’s visit his sister in Normandy. erally Alevis, whereas Omer more secret activities, though Guney’s home village, Sakisla they can quite easily rub shoul- One of the people with whom he (Sivas region) is not at all Alevi ders with senior leaders. shared lodgings revealed, and above all not pro-Kurdish. anonymously to FiratNews In the last elections Sarkisla According to Murat Karayılan, Agency (pro-PKK) the way voted for the two extreme right he was an “agent” who had infil- Guney had reacted on learning parties.