Sakine Cansız

• 1958 – 9 January 2013• One of the co-founders of the

Kurdistan Workers' Party (or PKK). • A Kurdish activist in the 1980s, she had been

arrested and tortured by Turkish police.• A close associate of Abdullah Öcalan and a

senior member of the PKK• She was shot dead in Paris, France, on 9

January 2013, with two other female Kurdish activists.

Source : From Wikipedia

Presentation by: Dr. Mohamed Al-Shekhani

The assassination:• On 10 January 2013, Cansız, in her 50s, was found dead with two

other Kurdish female activists. • Autopsy results placed the time of death for the three women as

sometime between 6pm and 7pm on the day before.• Bodies were found in the Kurdistan Information Center- Paris.• The killings occurred at a time when the Turkish government was

in negotiation with PKK leaders including Öcalan. • PKK activists in Paris considered the murders an attempt by

"dark forces" within the Turkish government to derail these negotiations. Turkish officials pointed at frequent strife within the PKK,with the Turkish national daily Hürriyet reporting that Cansız had been in conflict with Ferman Hussein, a Syrian national and the alleged commander of the PKK's military wing.

• Also killed were Fidan Doğan of the Kurdistan National Congress (based in Brussels) and Leyla Söylemez, a "junior activist."

• The French interior minister Manuel Valls announced that the three women were all killed execution-style