PARIS SECRETS OF THE PKK

Three activists of the political wing of the Kurdish terrorist organization PKK, including Sakine Cansiz, one of the founders of the party, have been shot in Paris in building owned by the Kurdish community in the French capital.

Cansiz, also known as Sara, fled from Turkey in the 1980s. She had been arrested there several times and was believed to be close to PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

While in Syria, she established PKK women's combat units and then moved to the Iraqi border areas to engage in sabotage operations. In recent years, however, Sara had given up terrorist methods of struggle and began to protect the rights of female Kurds in European emigration.

Besides Cansiz, Fidan Dogan, an employee of Kurdistan Information Centre in Paris and a representative of the Kurdish National Congress in France, and Leyla Soylemez, who is described by the Kurdish community as a "young activist" of the separatist movement, were also killed.

The French government issued a reaction immediately. French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who arrived at the crime scene, did not wait for at least the first results of the investigation and described the killing as "an obvious execution". "Be assured that the French authorities are determined to shed light on this crime," he told journalists and Cansiz's colleagues.

Very interesting statements were also made by French President Francois Hollande. Answering journalists' questions, he described the event as "terrible" and added, "The investigation is under way. I think it is better to wait and find out causes of the crime and who perpetrated it. I knew one of the three victims. She was known to many political leaders of France because she regularly met with us," Hollande said.

In other words, the French president has openly admitted that one of the leaders (Fidan Dogan) of the political wing of the organization which is seen as terrorist in many countries, including the European Union, had close ties with the leadership of France.

It should be noted that France is traditionally considered one of the key countries, where Kurdish separatists and terrorists are actively deploying political activities against Turkey. It is in this country, according to Turkish security experts, that the so-called "money box" is based to support both political and military movement of Kurdish separatists.

Given the said status of the victims, the killing of three activists instantly became the most discussed topic of the world media.

Killing as an attempt to disrupt talks

Quite interesting is the timing of this event. The point is that 2012 was one of the bloodiest in the history of Kurdish armed separatism in Turkey. The country was faced with unprecedented bloody crimes of Kurdish terrorists.

All this prompted Turkish authorities to start negotiations with the imprisoned PKK head Abdullah Ocalan, who is kept in prison on the island of Imrali, and the political wing of Kurdish separatists. Initially, the fact of negotiations with the terrorists and members of the PKK political wing were denied. More recently, however, the fact of negotiations with Ocalan was confirmed.

Both the ruling party and leaders of the terrorist organization portrayed the negotiations as a victory. Meanwhile, the Turkish media even published a "road map" of settlement of the Kurdish issue. Thus, according to various sources, the agreement included the following stages: in the spring of 2013 the terrorist group declares truce and leaves Turkey, while in return the leadership of the country ceases military operations against terrorists and frees the imprisoned Kurds who did not take part in military operations (the political wing of the PKK considers them "political prisoners"). The Turkish authorities were also to create a legal framework for the transition of former terrorists to a peaceful existence. At a later stage, the Turkish leadership, together with Kurdish party "Peace and Democracy", will develop a new Constitution. The Turkish parliament will set up a Commission to find out the truth, which will investigate the extrajudicial killings in the region densely populated by ethnic Kurds. Steps will be taken to ensure legal activities of the PKK, which, in turn, will convene a national conference and officially announce the cessation of the armed resistance. The conference will announce the "historic declaration" prepared by Ocalan himself. It will provides for new relations between the Turks and the Kurds. Thus, the PKK will cease to exist as an armed organization.

However, the killing of three activists in Paris has cast a shadow on the plan, and peace between the Turkish authorities and the terrorists is unlikely to set in any time soon. Naturally, the question arises: who is behind all this? Immediately after the killing both the Turkish authorities and the separatists began recriminations that had something in common: "The murder was committed by forces who did not want the implementation of the peaceful settlement of the Kurdish issue."

Kurdish trace 

The vulnerable part of the plan was the sole responsibility of Ocalan for its implementation. Over the long years of absence of its leader, the terrorist organization itself has gone through many processes, and Ocalan's absolute power has been fairly shaken. PKK has acquired new and quite ambitious field commanders who could easily question its credibility. The press has long talked about the differences even within the armed PKK leadership, not to mention its political wings. The organization has long become a weapon in the hands of the intelligence services of various countries that have their own interests in the region. The fight for control over such financial sources as income from extortion and racketeering of Kurdish businesses to maintain the "armed struggle" or money from drug trafficking has also contributed to the formation of separate groups within the terrorist organization.

Sakine Cansiz killed in Paris has had differences with the party leadership after Ocalan's arrest. Being Ocalan's close associate, she knew almost all the secrets of the leader, and after her boyfriend Mehmet Sener, also one of the founders of the organization, was executed due to internal squabbles within the PKK leadership, she moved to Germany. Despite all this, Cansiz never lost contact with the terrorist organization and, according to some information, was its representative in Germany. She could hardly be called the "dove of peace", but Cansiz always remained true to Ocalan and actively supported the truce plan.

According to eye-witnesses, the killers left the scene and closed the door. The door was opened to them by the victims themselves. Accordingly, the killed knew their killers. Another remarkable feature of what happened is the fact that shots were fired in the head and no traces of a struggle were found. All this indicates the version of the Turkish authorities that the killings were the work of the terrorists opposed to the peace plan.

We recall that in 2011, when Abdullah Ocalan called on his supporters to lay down arms and start a political struggle, the PKK staged a terrorist attack in Silwan, where 13 Turkish soldiers were killed.

"Ergenekon revives?" 

Kurdish political leaders have accused Turkish special services or organizations that are supposedly under their control of the killings. According to Kurdish activists, secret nationalist organizations such as "Ergenekon" would be interested in disrupting the peace talks. Proponents of this theory cite examples of events the 1980s, when young nationalists "Grey Wolves" with the help of the Turkish secret services carried out successful retaliation in Europe against the Armenian terrorist organization "ASALA" which was responsible for killing dozens of Turkish diplomats around world.

However, this version can be considered almost unfounded. Over the 10 years of existence of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey, all such organizations have been destroyed, many people in the leadership of the army and intelligence services arrested those guilty of the slightest sympathy for such groups. We can not ignore the fact that, according to Turkish experts, there is informal agreement between Turkish authorities and leaders of the PKK terrorists not to attack people of leadership and diplomats.

Third forces 

Both earlier and now, any terrorist organizations without even knowing it have often become a weapon for different countries. Given the processes that are currently taking place in the Middle East, the disbanding of the terrorist organization which has more than 10,000 heavily armed and trained terrorists, is not in the interest of many countries. As already mentioned, the secret services of many countries of the region are trying to introduce or recruit those who are part of the PKK leadership. And given the fact that Turkey, having abandoning the traditional doctrine of a reserved foreign policy, has started to increase its influence in the region, such a lever as the PKK is an important tool in the hands of Ankara's opponents. The point is that while counting on the never received support from its NATO allies and deploying the concept of "zero problems with neighbors", Turkey has lost almost all of its allies in the region.

After spoiling its relations with Israel which supported Turkey in security issues for years, Ankara also "quarreled" with Tehran and Baghdad. On the other hand, by actively supporting the armed uprising against Syria's Assad, who was once considered a close friend of the current Turkish leadership, Ankara could not know that the answer would be the support for Kurdish terrorists in Turkey.

Another neighbor of Turkey, Iran, which resolves the problem of separatism in the most stringent manner, may also be interested in a stronger PKK due to a lack of commitments to the EU and NATO. In fact, Kurdish leaders who fought for independence from Iran were killed by Iranian security forces in Europe. These include Dr. Abdurrahman Kasimli and Serefkendi.

One can not ignore northern Iraq where the Kurds gained de facto independence. No matter how often the regional Kurdish authorities in Iraq have displayed a spirit of cooperation and loyalty to the Turkish authorities, analysts say that the PKK is popular in Northern Iraq.

Somehow the killing of three Kurdish activists has complicated the already difficult process of resolution of the Kurdish issue in the region, which has been shaped by many internal and external factors. It remains to be hoped that the French police will conduct an objective investigation, on which the solution of the PKK issue largely depends.