For their community, the 2013 murders of three Kurdish women activists in Paris remain an open wound, and fury over France’s unwillingness to hold those involved accountable endures.
Just a few minutes’ walk from the location of the killings over ten years ago, a white French gunman allegedly killed three Kurds on Friday, adding insult to injury.
The 2013 murders have come back into the spotlight thanks to the current attack, and the Kurdish community is wondering why French officials are still unable to completely explain the case and determine whether there were collaborators or sympathizers.
Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), was assassinated on January 9, 2013, together with Fidan Dogan, 28, and Leyla Soylemez, 24. As a terrorist organization, the PKK is designated as such by Ankara and its Western backers.
They were shot in the Kurdistan Information Institution’s Paris headquarters, which are only a 10-minute walk from the Kurdish cultural center that was attacked on Friday.
Omer Guney, a citizen of Turkey, was accused of killing the three but passed away from brain cancer in a hospital the month before his case went to trial in December 2016.
The families of the activists cite documents as evidence of Turkey’s secret agency’s participation (MIT). MIT formally denied any involvement in 2014
Following the shooting on Friday, several Kurdish protesters fought with police and accused France of failing to protect them.
Demonstrators have compared the recent incident to the murders that occurred in 2013 while some are carrying pictures of the three activists.
Turkish involvement in the shooting last week has also been suggested by some, but French investigators have not made any declarations to that effect.
The 69-year-old man was charged on Monday with murder motivated by race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion after allegedly confessing to having racist ideas.
Guney was apprehended despite denying any involvement in the 2013 homicides; security footage showed him entering the crime scene, and one of the victims’ DNA was purportedly recovered on his coat.
However, the dubious background of Guney, a maintenance worker at Charles de Gaulle Airport, complicated the case even more.
Police sources first said that he identified himself as a PKK member, which the organization disputed. Later, from late 2011 onward, he was thought to be associated with ultra-nationalist Turkish organisations and accused of infiltrating France’s Kurdish community.
Since 1984, the PKK has been fighting the Turkish government, first for a Kurdish homeland and later for increased political autonomy for Kurds.
The organization and its followers defend the PKK as a movement for national liberation.
The 2013 killings occurred as the Turkish government and imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan began hesitant peace negotiations to end the conflict that has killed thousands of lives.
Fighting broke out once more after a ceasefire in 2015 failed.
Turkish media released a video of a discussion between a guy allegedly Guney and two Turkish agents as well as what appeared to be a “mission order” despite MIT’s denial.
According to Antoine Comte, a lawyer for the family of one of the activists killed, “His contacts with Turkish (intelligence) services were confirmed by many components in the case,” he told AFP last week.
The probe, which was completed in May 2015, had shown Turkish agents’ “involvement” without naming any sponsors.
According to a person familiar with the matter, it was still unclear if the agents were involved “officially” and “with their supervisors’ agreement” or if Guney was a renegade actor.
According to his former attorney Xavier Nogueras, Guney “was suspected of being an ultra-nationalist Turk and there was little dispute regarding his links with Turkish secret services.”
However, Nogueras told AFP that the judges were debating whether the request originated from MIT or if he had visited the institution to see if he might be of assistance.
Despite Guney’s passing, the families’ hopes of proving Ankara’s alleged complicity remain intact.
With materials they said demonstrated the killings were “an operation well organized by the Turkish secret services,” they launched their first legal action in 2017.
An anti-terror judge was appointed to look into the matter after the families filed a new complaint after the Paris prosecutor closed the inquiry.
The Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F) pleaded with France earlier this month to make material from the inquiry public in order to end “impunity.”
Attorney Comte stated that other investigations were still pending.
He noted that the families had a meeting with the judges overseeing the 2013 case just three days prior to the incident on Friday.
»The murders of three Parisian activists remain unsolved«