Three Kurdish female activists were found shot dead early Thursday inside a Kurdish institute in the heart of Paris. The victims included one of the founders of outlawed militant group the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).
Three Kurdish female activists - including one of the founders of outlawed militant group the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) - were found dead with gunshot wounds to the head inside a Kurdish institute in Paris early Thursday, in what France's Interior Minister Manuel Valls has called an "assassination".
The bodies of the women were found shortly before 2am local time at a Kurdish information centre, located in the popular tenth district of the French capital near the bustling Gare du Nord train station.
"Three people, three women have been shot down, killed, without doubt executed. This is a very serious incident, which is why I am here. It is completely unacceptable," Valls told reporters outside the building, while declining to speculate about a motive for the triple murders.
French anti-terror police have launched an investigation into the killings.
One of the victims was Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the PKK, according to the Federation of Kurdish Associations in France (FEYKA), which claims to represent about 150,000 Kurdish exiles in France.
A terrorist group
The PKK has been fighting a bitter guerrilla struggle against Turkish authorities for almost three decades and is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and the US among other countries. But the organisation enjoys widespread sympathy among Kurds living inside and outside Turkey.
The other two women have been identified as 32-year-old Fidan Dogan, who worked in the Kurdish institute's information centre, according to the institute's director, Leon Edart. Dogan was also the Paris representative of the Brussels-based Kurdistan National Congress.
The third woman, Leyla Soylemez, was described as a "young activist" by FEYKA.
The three were last seen midday on Wednesday at the centre, which was found locked by late afternoon, according to Edart.
In an interview with a Kurdish news website in France, FEYKA chairman Mehmet Ulker said the bodies of three women were found around 1am by their friends, who were worried after numerous phone calls went unanswered. "When they saw traces of blood on the door, they broke down the door and found the bodies of three women assassinated," said Ulker.
'We are all PKK, we are all Ochalan'
News of the triple murders was greeted with shock and anger by the Kurdish community in Paris.
Reporting from outside the Kurdish institute, FRANCE 24's Guillaume Guguen said a crowd of around 200 demonstrators gathered outside the building shortly after the news 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.
