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Paris Murders Just One Element Of PKK Puzzle

Tulin Daloglu writes that the recent murders of three PKK members in Paris may not derail the current initiative by Prime Minister Erdogan, but other issues might.

Turkish Kurdish demonstrators march with pictures of slain Kurdish activists during a protest in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, January 12, 2013. Three female Kurdish activists, including a founding member of the PKK rebel group, were found shot dead in Paris on Thursday, in execution-style killings condemned by Turkish politicians trying to broker a peace deal. REUTERS/Stringer (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST)
Turkish Kurdish demonstrators march with pictures of slain Kurdish activists during a protest in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, Jan. 12, 2013. — REUTERS

Many believe the murders of the three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) women on Jan. 10 in Paris were aimed to sabotage the Turkish government’s new efforts to find a peaceful solution to the long-lasting Kurdish issue in Turkey. While there is no doubt that these executions are going to have an impact, it is an exaggeration at best to claim that just one act can derail this initiative. Still, there are other serious potential challenges to this process.

First is the question of whether the public has been prepared for engaging directly with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rhetoric on this issue seems contradictory.

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