Kurdish community, Kurdish Women, Peace process

We demand justice!

CENI – Kurdish Women’s Office for peace have released this statement on the anniversary of the assassinations in Paris of Sakine, Fidan and Leyla.

Also, the CENI Info news bulletin for June is available in English for the first time, bring you all the latest news from the Kurdish women’s movement in Kurdistan and the diaspora. You can download it here. 

We won’t rest until the murders of Sakine, Fidan and Leyla are completely solved:

 We demand justice!

On 9 January 2013, a terrible crime took place in central Paris. Three female Kurdish politicians and fighters for freedom and women rights, Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez were gruesomely murdered with shots to the head. The Kurdish people, women and democratic forces around the world, are demanding a prompt and full investigation into the killings.

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Conflict resolution, Peace process

EUTCC statement on the withdrawal of troops from Turkey

Press release: for immediate release

26 April 2013

PKK’S HISTORICAL MOVE FOR PEACE

It is with great appreciation that the EUTCC received the message from Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council President Murat Karayilan that the PKK withdraws its forces gradually from Turkey starting 8 May, 2013. The withdrawal is a result of the ongoing peace talks between the PKK’s leader Mr. Abdullah Öcalan and the Turkish government and emerged following letter exchanges between the mountain and the leader. The withdrawal is the first phase in a process that hopefully leads to lasting peace.

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Kurdish community, Kurdish Women, Peace process

A Call for Justice: Over 100 women join together to demand justice for Sakine, Fidan and Leyla


Margaret Owen OBE and Professor Mary Davis, two patrons of the Peace in Kurdistan campaign, have written an open letter to the Justice Minister of France, Christiane Taubira, demanding justice for Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Soylemez who were brutally assassinated on 9 January 2013. The assassinations, which took place days after peace talks with the Turkish government and Abdullah Ocalan were announced, was not only an attack on these three well-loved and well-known activists, but on the Kurdish women’s movement and the Kurdish liberation struggle as a whole.

The letter has been signed by nearly 120 women from across the UK, and the list includes members of parliament, academics, campaigners, trade unionists and many more.  These women have chosen to stand by their Kurdish sisters who worked tirelessly for peace and justice for Kurdistan. So that their message is heard clearly, we have also sent copies to of the letter to MP’s Theresa May, Yvette Cooper, Baroness Warsi, Harriet Harman and Emily Thornberry. The letter has also been published in today’s print edition of the Morning Star.

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Conflict resolution, Kurdish Women, Peace process, Political prisoners, War crimes

Karayılan: We have no doubt the Turkish state was involved

Translated from Turkish original (short text version), London 1 Feb. 2013

by DENİZ KENDAL

22 January 2013

BEHDİNAN – KCK Executive Council President Murat Karayılan said they had no doubt that the Turkish state was behind the murder of three Kurdish women activists in Paris, adding that it was “highly likely” the attack had been carried out along the lines of the Green Ergenekon integration strategy.

Karayılan stated there were two possibilities as regards which forces were behind the murders of PKK founder member Sakine Cansız, KNK Paris representative Fidan Doğan and youth movement member Leyla Söylemez on 9 January. Karayılan said it was highly likely that the attack had been carried out by Green Ergenekon forces as part of their plans to liquidate the leaders of the Kurdish movement. He added that the second possibility was that the Ergenekon deep state structure had carried out the attack without the knowledge of the government together with the NATO Gladio.  Karayılan also made assessments of the latest developments in Syria.

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