several hundred demonstrators demand “justice” for three Kurdish activists murdered in 2013

On the night of January 9 to 10, 2013, three PKK activists were killed by several bullets to the head in the grounds of the Kurdistan Information Center (CIK) in Paris.

More than 10,000 demonstrators from across Europe are expected, according to organizers. Hundreds of people gathered in Paris on Saturday January 6 before starting to march to demand “the lifting of defense secrecy” in the investigation into the assassination of three Kurdish activists in 2013, AFP journalists noted.

“Justice and truth”, “eleven years later still no justice”, “in ten years the Kurds killed twice” are part of the slogans of the demonstrators, who met in front of the Gare du Nord before marching towards the Place de République. They carried red flags of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), or purple ones bearing the image of the victims.

On the night of January 9 to 10, 2013, three PKK activists were killed by several bullets to the head in the grounds of the Kurdistan Information Center (CIK) in Paris. They were Sakine Cansiz, 54, Fidan Dogan, 28, and Leyla Saylemez, 24. Ten years later, anti-terrorism investigating judges are still trying to identify possible accomplices of the alleged shooter, who died in prison.

An investigation reopened in 2019

The French justice investigation had pointed out “the implication” of MIT, the Turkish intelligence services, without however naming sponsors. The investigation was reopened in 2019, and MIT officially denied any involvement. Both Ankara and the European Union qualify the PKK as a terrorist organization.

The memory of this triple assassination was revived last year, after the murder of three Kurds (two men and a woman) in the Kurdish cultural center in Paris, on December 23, 2022. William Malet, former paratrooper, was put in examined and imprisoned for racist assassinations and attempted assassinations. Many Kurds refuse to believe the version of a sniper who acted “out of hatred” foreigners, and denounce an act “terrorist” by blaming Turkey.