Did the Turks Assassinate Three Kurdish Women in Paris?

With a renewed vengeance to punish Kurdish dissidents, Turkey has begun new operations to fight the PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party) but would the Turks literally send assassins to Paris, France to take out three Kurdish women who were activists for the PKK?

The story comes from Now Media via The Religion of Peace.

Three Kurdish activists shot dead in Paris hit


Three Kurdish women, said to include a founding member of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), were shot dead overnight Thursday in Paris in what France's interior minister dubbed an "assassination."

The women were found in the early hours with gunshot wounds to the head inside a Kurdish information center in the 10th district of the French capital, police and the center's director said.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls visited the scene of the crime and described the killings as "assassinations."

The murders came after Turkish media reported Wednesday that the Turkish government and jailed Kurd rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan had agreed on a roadmap to end a three-decade-old insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

One of the dead in the Paris center was Sakine Cansiz, said the Federation of Kurdish Associations in France, which described her as a founding member of the PKK, which is fighting for greater Kurdish autonomy.

A second was said to be 32-year-old Fidan Dogan, an employee of the information center, who was also the Paris representative of the Brussels-based Kurdistan National Congress political group.

The third was Leyla Soylemez, described by the federation as a "young activist."

The three were last seen alive midday on Wednesday at the center, according to the centre's director, Leon Edart.

Friends and colleagues who tried and failed to contact them eventually went to the center and found traces of blood on the door, which they then forced open to find the bodies of the three inside, the Kurdish federation said.

Hundreds of Kurds gathered Thursday in front of the center to protest at the deaths, with some of them chanting "We are all PKK!" and "Turkey assassin, Hollande complicit," referring to French President Francois Hollande.

Around 45,000 people are believed to have been killed in the fighting between Turkish security forces and the rebels, who took up arms in 1984 under Ocalan's command, to obtain self-rule in the Kurdish-majority southeast.

Previous peace talks floundered after the PKK leadership demanded the release of Ocalan.

Huge Battle Between Turkish Soldiers and Kurdish Rebels Leaves 19 Dead

 PKK fighters stand near the Qandil mountains near the Iraq-Turkish border.The PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community. — File Photo by Reuters

Things are heating up along the Turkey-Iraq border as Kurdish rebels, last night, attacked a military post - the ensuing battle killed 19 - six Turkish soldiers, 11 Kurds and some local police.

I personally don't go along with the label of the Kurdish rebels or PKK as a terrorist organization - I've always sided with the Kurds and we saw during the Iraq War that America could trust the Kurds where the other factions in the country, we could not.  Plus, I have no love lost for Turkey - never have, never will.  I've always wanted their filth out of NATO, I don't care how strategic their location is.

The story comes from DAWN.

Fighting in southeast Turkey kills 19: governor


ANKARA: Fighting between Turkish soldiers and outlawed Kurdish rebels killed 19 people in the southeast of the country on Sunday, the local governor told the Anatolia news agency.

Six soldiers, two village guards and 11 Kurdish rebels were killed following an overnight rebel attack on an army post in a village in Hakkari province which borders Iraq, the governor Orhan Alimoglu said.

Another 15 soldiers were wounded.

The raid on the army post follows similar assaults in the Kurdish-dominated southeast which have prompted the army to launch an all-out offensive against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) bases in the area.

The Turkish ground and air operation, one of the biggest in years, was launched about two weeks ago to drive out the rebels in the town of Semdinli, also in Hakkari province.

About 2,000 soldiers are involved in the offensive, private NTV television reported Sunday.

“A serious and strong operation is under way in Semdinli,” Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said last week.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.

Suicide Bombing In Istanbul, Turkey Wounds 22, the World Says It's PKK, Holger Says It's Al Qaeda

A suicide bomber hit a city square today in Istanbul, Turkey wounding 12 civilians and 10 police and now the finger pointing game begins in Turkey. While the press is quick to blame this attack on the rebel Kurdish group, PKK, I would beg to differ - I think this attack was al Qaeda.

First this, from the article at DAWN:

A suicide bomb ripped through crowds of shoppers and cafe-goers in the heart of Istanbul on Sunday, wounding 22 people, as an extended unilateral ceasefire by the separatist PKK came to an end.

The blast targeted riot-police patrolling the busy Taksim Square in the centre of the Turkish economic capital, police chief Huseyin Capkin said.

“We think it was a suicide attack,” he said, adding that 12 of the injured were civilians and 10 were police.

Capkin said none of the injured were in danger and the only fatality was the bomber, who blew himself up before reaching his intended target.

“He tried to get into a police bus but didn’t succeed,” he said.

Turkish television showed footage of police taking away the lifeless body of a man from the scene, as well as dazed and injured people receiving first aid.

Capkin did not say who was suspected of responsibility, but the separatist rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and extreme left-wing groups have carried out bomb attacks in the past in Istanbul, home to more than 12 million inhabitants.

Analysts quoted by television stations pointed to likely PKK involvement, whose unilateral ceasefire declared on August 13 was due to end on Sunday.

It's going to be easy to put this all on the PKK especially with that ceasefire ending just yesterday, but I point to al Qaeda for two reasons...first, al Qaeda has tried to make a splash on the world stage the past month - they had the big European plot that was sniffed out and just a few days ago we had the cargo plane package scheme. The second reason is that things are just too peaceful in Turkey - we have to notice here that this bombing targeted riot police and that is an al Qaeda trademark, to target police with bombings.

The fact that the military and the police in Turkey represent the biggest hurdle to an islamist regime taking over the political power in secular Turkey is reason enough that this country is high on the list for al Qaeda. I could be wrong on this but my gut says it's all part of a string of attacks planned by al Qaeda to raise their relevance on the world stage.

Suicide bomber wounds 22 in central Istanbul: police


ISTANBUL: A suicide bomb ripped through crowds of shoppers and cafe-goers in the heart of Istanbul on Sunday, wounding 22 people, as an extended unilateral ceasefire by the separatist PKK came to an end.

The blast targeted riot-police patrolling the busy Taksim Square in the centre of the Turkish economic capital, police chief Huseyin Capkin said.

“We think it was a suicide attack,” he said, adding that 12 of the injured were civilians and 10 were police.

Capkin said none of the injured were in danger and the only fatality was the bomber, who blew himself up before reaching his intended target.

“He tried to get into a police bus but didn’t succeed,” he said.

Turkish television showed footage of police taking away the lifeless body of a man from the scene, as well as dazed and injured people receiving first aid.

Capkin did not say who was suspected of responsibility, but the separatist rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and extreme left-wing groups have carried out bomb attacks in the past in Istanbul, home to more than 12 million inhabitants.

Analysts quoted by television stations pointed to likely PKK involvement, whose unilateral ceasefire declared on August 13 was due to end on Sunday.

The PKK said on September 30 that it had decided to extend its truce by one month, an announcement taken to mean it would end on October 30.

Istanbul governor Avni Mutlu said the bombing was the work of a “terrorist organisation” without elaborating. He told reporters that an investigation was underway to identify the culprits.

Murat Karayilan, a top commander of the outlawed PKK, last week said the PKK would no longer target civilians and wanted to extend a unilateral truce indefinitely if the government demonstrates a commitment to dialogue.

“We are actually in favour of a permanent ceasefire... We are waiting. We have not decided yet,” he told the Radikal newspaper.

Taksim Square, and the streets leading to it, attract tens of thousands of people a day and are patrolled by anti-riot police around the clock.

According to witnesses quoted by news channels, the powerful blast shook the area around 10.30 am (0830 GMT), blowing out windows in nearby offices and hotels.

Footage showed police and ambulances rushing to the scene.

Police immediately threw a security cordon around the area, and streets including the pedestrianised historic Istiklal were closed off, the CNN-Turk and NTV channels reported.

On June 22 a bomb exploded in a suburb of Istanbul as a bus full of soldiers was going past, killing five soldiers and the teenage daughter of one of them.

Responsibility was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), an obscure radical group loyal to jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, jailed for life in 1999.

The Turkish authorities say TAK is a front used by the PKK, especially when attacks claim civilian casualties.

The PKK has said TAK is a splinter group outside its control.

The PKK has waged a bloody 26-year campaign for self-rule in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey. — AFP

Islamic Terrorist Bombing of Minibus In Turkey Kills At Least 8

Turkey has seen another terrorist attack this morning as a minibus traveling with passengers in an area near the Iraq and Iran border was hit by an IED killing between 8 and 10 people. As the story from Reuters via Breitbart states, while this normally would be blamed on the Kurdish group PKK, it's unusual that that group would attack a civilian target. Nearly every attack I've ever seen by the PKK out of Iraq has been on Turkish military targets.

What Reuters won't admit here is that Turkey has had more than its share of al Qaeda attacks over the years and an IED obviously fits the m.o. of al Qaeda along with the fact that al Qaeda would like nothing more than to keep the Turks and the PKK warring with each other. The Kurds in Iraq certainly have their share of al Qaeda in Iraq scalps hanging in their barracks in Iraq.

I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see al Qaeda or some splinter group linked to them claim responsibility for this later today or tomorrow.

At least 8 die in minibus blast in southeast Turkey



(Reuters) - At least eight people were killed and three wounded when an explosive device ripped apart their minibus in southeast Turkey on Thursday, local officials said.

The blast occurred near the village of Gecitli in Hakkari province near the borders with Iraq and Iran.

Resul Kaya, mayor of the nearby town of Durankaya, told Reuters nine people died when the minibus hit a land mine. Security officials said it was a remote-controlled explosive device left in the road.

Those officials earlier said that at least 10 people had died. The Hakkari governor's office put the death toll at eight people, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.

Separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants have frequently carried out similar attacks in the past.

However, such attacks are generally on military targets and the PKK declared a ceasefire last month, which is not due to expire until September 20.

Before that ceasefire there had been an upsurge in violence between the military and the rebels since June when the PKK ended a previous 14-month unilateral ceasefire.

Several thousand PKK guerrillas are based in the mountains of northern Iraq, from where they regularly launch raids in southeast Turkey.

The group took up arms against Turkey in 1984. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died in the fighting.

Turkey Launches Ground Assault INSIDE Iraq

Man, this is NOT good. For the first time (confirmed), Turkey has sent troops across the Iraqi border into Iraq to go after Kurdish rebels. Now, as serious as this is, it certainly can't be surprising. The U.S. and Iraq have done nothing to protest any of the air assault on the Kurds by Turkey to this point. I've seen it play out - the Turks have become more aggressive each time, testing the international waters and every time, they have not even received a handslap. So this time they are taking an even bigger step and it is my view, that THIS time, the U.S. and Iraq have to draw the line.
Now, I have no love lost for the PKK (Kurdish rebels) but at the same time, for Turkish troops to be in Iraq is insane! We have to realize that the Turks HATE the Kurds and vice versa. Let me ask how Turks being in Iraq is any different than Iranians being in Iraq? Or Syrians being in Iraq?
Unless I have missed it, I have not seen a single attack by PKK factions inside of Turkey for over a month - yet Turkey is on the ground inside of Iraq? Like I said, this is not good.

Full story from Breitbart is here.

Turkey Launches Ground Operation in Iraq

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Turkish troops launched a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit of separatist Kurdish rebels, the military said Friday—a move that dramatically escalates Turkey's conflict with the militants.
It is the first confirmed ground operation by the Turkish military into Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. It also raised concerns that it could trigger a wider conflict with the U.S.-backed Iraqi Kurds, despite Turkey's assurances that its only target was the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
The ground operation started after Turkish warplanes and artillery bombed suspected rebel targets on Thursday, the military said on its Web site. The incursion was backed by the Air Force, the statement said.
Turkey has conducted air raids against the PKK guerrillas in northern Iraq since December, with the help of U.S. intelligence, and it has periodically carried out so-called "hot pursuits" in which small units sometimes spend only a few hours inside Iraq.
The announcement of a cross-border, ground incursion of a type that Turkey carried out before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a major development in its conflict with the Kurdish rebels, which started in 1984 and has claimed as many as 40,000 lives.
Turkey staged about two-dozen incursions in Iraq during the rule of Saddam, who launched brutal campaigns against the Kurdish population. Some Turkish offensives involved tens of thousands of troops. Results were mixed, with rebels suffering blows to their ranks and supplies but regrouping after the bulk of the Turkish forces had left.
PKK spokesman Ahmad Danas said two Turkish troops were killed and eight wounded in clashes along the 240-mile border, but there was no comment from the Turkish military and no way to independently confirm the claim.