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Kurdish PKK co-founder Sakine Cansiz shot dead in Paris | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Three Kurdish women activists - including a co-founder of the militant separatist PKK - have been found dead with gunshot wounds to the head in the Kurdish Institute of Paris. | |
The bodies of Sakine Cansiz and two others were found on Thursday. | |
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls called the killings "intolerable". | |
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. | 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. | However, Turkey has recently begun talks with the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, with the aim of persuading the group to disarm. |
Locked doors | |
The three women were last seen inside the information centre of the Kurdish institute on Wednesday afternoon. A member of the Kurdish community tried to visit the centre but found the doors were locked. | |
Their bodies were found in the early hours on Thursday. All three had been shot in the head, police said. | |
Along with Sakine Cansiz, a second woman has been named as Fidan Dogan, 32, who worked in the information centre. | |
The third, named as Leyla Soylemez, was a young activist. | |
Members of the Kurdish community demonstrated outside the information centre as Mr Valls arrived. | |
The three women had "undoubtedly" been executed, Mr Valls said, adding that the French authorities were determined to "shed light on this act". | |
"In this neighbourhood, in this Kurdish information centre, in the 10th arrondissement [district] where many Kurds live, I also came to express my sympathy to the relatives and close friends of these three women," he said. | |
A representative of the Federation of Kurdish Assocations in France (Feyka), Leon Edart, told the French BFM news channel that there were no CCTV cameras in the office. | |
Mr Edart, who knew the women, said first indications were that the neighbours had heard nothing. | Mr Edart, who knew the women, said first indications were that the neighbours had heard nothing. |