Bodies of Slain Kurdish Activists Sent to Turkey

Posted January 16th, 2013 at 11:00 am (UTC-5)
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The bodies of three Kurdish activists killed last week in France have been flown to Turkey for burial.

The bodies of the slain women were expected to arrive Wednesday in the mainly-Kurdish southeast province of Diyarbakir with a ceremony to be held Thursday.

The three women, Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Soylemez, were found shot to death January 10 at the Kurdish Information Center in Paris. Cansiz was a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, an outlawed group that took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey.

Turkey has suggested that the killings are linked to the ongoing negotiations between the Turkish government and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, while Kurdish activists say that it might be the work of Turkish extremists.