The comments of İsmail Hakkı Pekin, a former top official in Turkey’s army intelligence, in a live broadcast on a Turkish national TV channel, has triggered the discussion on the role of Turkish Intelligence in the murder of three Kurdish female political activists in Paris in 2013.
Speaking on a live programme on national TV, Pekin, who served in top positions in the Turkish Armed Forces and was also the Head of the General Staff Intelligence Department, shared a confession-like statement that the three female Kurdish politicians Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez might have been killed in 2013 by Turkish intelligence in Paris.
Speaking on a broadcast in Turkey’s Habertürk on the “necessary operations to target the think tank” of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party Pekin said, “There are elements of these in Europe. We need to do something to those elements in Europe. It was previously done in Paris, yet…”.
Whilst Pekin had been serving as the Chief of Turkey’s General Staff Intelligence Department between 2007 and 2012, these words spoken live on national TV have created a debate regarding the murder of Sakine Cansız (54), Leyla Şaylemez (24) and Fidan Doğan (28), the three women – one of whom, Sakine Cansiz, was among the founders of the PKK – who were killed in a chilling execution styled assassination operation in Paris on 9 January 2013.
The case file of the three Kurdish female politicians killed in Paris was reopened due to the investigation of the possible role of Turkey’s ‘National Intelligence Organisation (MİIT)’ in the assassination whilst an ‘anti-terrorism’ prosecutor was also assigned to the case as part of the conduct of the investigation.
Turkey’s MIT announced in January 2014 that they had nothing to do with the murder of the three women.
The families of the murdered women requested in March 2018 that a new investigation be launched to reveal the ones who ordered their assassination and their possible accomplices.
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