Three Kurdish female activists shot dead in Paris

Three Kurdish women were found dead with gunshot wounds inside the Kurdish Institute of Paris, early Thursday. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the French capital to demand a speedy inquiry into the triple murders.

Three Kurdish activists were found dead with gunshot wounds to the head inside the Kurdish Institute of Paris in the heart of the French capital early Thursday. The motive for the killings is still unclear.

The bodies of the women were found shortly before 2am local time at the Kurdish Institute of Paris, according to police sources.

"The scene leads one to think of an execution, but the investigation will determine the exact circumstances," a police source told news agency AFP.

Responding to the news during an interview with the France Info radio station, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls described the killings as "intolerable" and added that he hoped an inquiry into the killings would make “rapid progress, but let's allow the investigators to do their work”.

Valls later visited Kurdish Institute of Paris, which is located in the tenth district of the French capital near the bustling Gare du Nord train station.

Traces of blood on the door

One of the women has been identified as 32-year-old Fidan Dogan, who worked in the institute's information centre, according to the institute’s director, Leon Edart.

The three were last seen midday on Wednesday at the centre, which was found locked by late afternoon, according to Edart.

A Kurdish news website in France identified the other two victims as Sakine Cansiz, a member of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Leyla Soylemez, a young activist.

According the website, the bodies of three women were found around 1am by their friends, who were worried after numerous phone calls were unanswered. "When they saw traces of blood on the door, they broke the door and found the bodies of three women executed," said Mehmet Ulker, chairman of the Federation of Kurdish Associations in France (FEYKA).

‘We are all PKK, we are all Ochalan’

Reporting from outside the Kurdish Institute of Paris, FRANCE 24’s Guillaume Guguen said a crowd of around 200 demonstrators gathered outside the building shortly after the news of the triple murders broke. “Some of the demonstrators are carrying pictures of [jailed PKK leader] Abdullah Ocalan and shouting slogans such as, ‘We are all PKK, we are all Ochalan,’” said Guguen.

The attack comes as Turkish authorities recently acknowledged that they were holding talks with Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison.

The PKK has waged a 28-year insurgency against the Turkish state in which more than 40,000 people are estimated to have been killed.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Armel Taverdin, a lawyer for one of the three victims, said, “This triple murder was fomented by the forces opposed to a solution to Kurdistan, the forces who are looking for a provocation.”

'Plenty of evidence'

Taverdin added that the French police had plenty of evidence to work on in the case since, he maintained, at least two of the three victims had been under surveillance by the French police.

In a statement published on the Turkish English language daily, Hurriyet Daily News, a spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) said, "This seems like an internal feud, we have seen these sorts of incidents before," said AKP spokesman Hüseyin Çelik. "There may be some people who want to derail this process, we should be extremely careful," he added.

But outside the Kurdish Institute of Paris, demonstrators were convinced that the murders were linked to the political situation in Turkey. “This is an act of provocation,” said Mehmet Algunerahn, a 40-year-old construction worker who arrived at the scene of the crime as soon as he heard the news. “The murders are connected to the negotiations with Ochalan. I call on the police to find those responsible for these killings.”