Turkey’s prime minister has said the fatal shooting of three Kurdish female activists in Paris appears to have been the result of an internal feud. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said evidence so far pointed to the women being killed by someone known to them, as the building where the execution-style killings occurred was secured by a coded lock and could only be opened by insiders. But Erdogan said investigations needed to be completed before a definitive conclusion could be reached. “Those three people opened it. No doubt they wouldn’t open it to people they didn’t know,” Erdogan told reporters on his plane returning from Senegal on Friday, according state-run Anatolian news agency. Those killed in Thursday’s attack include Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group that started its rebellion against the Turkish government in 1984 and is seeking self-rule. The other two victims are 32-year-old Fidan Dogan and Leyla Soylemez, described as a “young activist”. The attack overshadowed peace negotiations between Turkey and the guerrillas, said commentators. Erdogan also said the killings could also have been intended to sabotage efforts towards peace talks with the PKK. French investigators gave no immediate indication of who might be behind the murders but police continued their search for the culprits. The PKK has seen intermittent internal feuding during an armed campaign in the mountainous Turkish southeast that has killed some 40,000 people since 1984. Turkish nationalist fighters have in the past also been accused of killing Kurdish activists, who want regional autonomy.
