Skip to main content

Erdogan to Continue PKK Talks Despite Paris Murders

Cengiz Candar analyzes the potential motivations for the murders of three PKK activists in Paris and what it might mean for the Turkey-PKK talks.
Members of the Kurdish community hold a banner showing the three Kurdish women, Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan, and Leyla Soeylemez (L-R) found shot dead in Paris, as they pay tribute to them in front of the Gare de l'Est railway station, in Paris 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/Christian Hartmann (FRA

Awhile ago, I used “Turkey’s Guernica” to describe the Roboski incident along the Iraqi border in late 2011, in which F-16 jets bombed and killed 34 Kurds, most of them boys, mistaking them for PKK militants seeking to infiltrate Turkey.

Roboski is the Kurdish name of the area where the incident took place. Its official name in Turkish is the district of Uludere, part of Sirnak province. And now, less than two weeks later, the murder of three female PKK members in Paris has been described as “France’s Roboski” by Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which shares the PKK’s political agenda.

Access the Middle East news and analysis you can trust

Join our community of Middle East readers to experience all of Al-Monitor, including 24/7 news, analyses, memos, reports and newsletters.

Subscribe

Only $100 per year.