World press on the murder of four Kurdish activists in Paris (January 10, 2012)

The murder of four female activists of the PKK in Paris is in the focus of today's newspapers. "Kurdish activists shot dead in Paris" is an article published today by the British newspaper the Guardian.

"Kurdish groups in Turkey said that the murders could be part of an attempt to sabotage peace talks. Mehmet Ali Ertas, an activist and journalist at the pro-Kurdish news agency DIHA in Diyarbakir, said: "These murders happened during a pivotal moment. Military operations [against the PKK] and the talks [with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan] are both ongoing… Ihsan Kaçar, head of the Istanbul Human Rights Association said the murders could have been an attempt to undermine the positive reaction in Turkey to the nascent peace process," the article reads.

" 'There are so many Kurdish political refugees in France. If we can't feel safe here where can we feel safe? This killing was clearly well organised. Unfortunately this is a dirty war. The feeling among this crowd is that this killing was done to sabotage the peace talks,' " the newspaper quotes one of the participants of Kurdish protests that engulfed Paris after the murders were discovered.

Another article dedicated to the same topic was published today by the Washington Post under the title "Top Kurdish Militant Is Among Three Slain in Paris."

"While Kurdish militants blamed Turkey, Turkish officials said the women could have been killed because of feuding within the P.K.K. Huseyin Celik, the deputy chairman of the ruling party in Turkey, said the shootings seemed to be part of an internal dispute but offered no evidence to support the claim. 'Whenever in Turkey we reach the stage of saying ‘friend, give up this business, let the weapons be silent,’ whenever a determination emerges on this, such incidents happen,' Mr. Celik told reporters in Ankara. 'Is there one P.K.K.? I’m not sure of that,' " the article reads.