Erdoğan: Evidence suggests Paris killings could be inside job

The bodies of the women -- PKK co-founder Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Söylemez -- were found at around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday at the Kurdistan Information Center on Rue Lafayette in Paris.

Speaking to journalists en route to Ankara from Senegal, Erdoğan said that some information has emerged with respect to the deaths in Paris that could shed light on why the women were killed.

“Some technical details have emerged which are interesting,” Erdoğan said, adding that the building in which the bodies were found had been locked from the inside with a sophisticated cipher lock, so those who did not know the code could not have opened the door.

Erdoğan suggested that someone must have knocked and the women must have opened the door, but that they would not have opened the door to someone they did not know. “They opened the door to someone they knew,” he stated.

When asked by journalists if it is likely the killings were then carried out by someone from within the PKK, Erdoğan replied that that is beginning to look stronger as a possibility. The prime minister noted that the French government will conduct the investigation.

The killings took place at a crucial time when Turkey is negotiating with the terrorist PKK to resolve the country's long-standing Kurdish problem.

Erdoğan also spoke about a division within the terrorist organization, saying some ill-intentioned factions within the group could be trying to derail the peace talks. He recalled earlier remarks he made on Thursday in which he said the killings could be a provocation. He added that a faction against the peace talks spoke with the pro-PKK news agency Firat, rejecting the peace talks and urging that something be done to cause them to break down.

The prime minister said the assassinations could be the result of an internal dispute or aimed at halting “our goodwill steps” towards ending the Kurdish issue.

The PKK, which has been fighting for greater autonomy for Kurds, has waged a 28-year war against the Turkish state in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.

President Abdullah Gül also spoke about the Paris killings on Friday, saying that any comments on the murder of three Kurdish women would be just speculation, as time is needed to fully understand the motive behind the killings.

“We need a couple of days to understand the background of the incident. Our relevant institutions will give the necessary information on who did this on what grounds after a few days. And then we will see what is behind this incident. But whatever is being said now is nothing more than speculation,” Gül said in his first comments on the incident.

Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday that he knew one of the murdered Kurdish women and had been meeting with her regularly, describing the assassination as “horrible.”

Hollande said the investigation into the killings is continuing and that the best thing to do is wait and see who did it and why.

In the aftermath of the shootings in Paris, Turkey put its diplomatic missions in Europe on alert and asked the French authorities to boost security around its interests there, a Turkish official told Reuters on Friday.

“We asked the French authorities to increase the level of security around our interests and representations in France, to prevent any kind of incident,” the official said.

“We also alerted our missions, first and foremost in Europe and of course in France, to be on alert.”

Speaking about the killings in Paris, a top Justice and Development Party (AK Party) official, Mustafa Elitaş, also said the murders seem like the “work of the deep PKK.”

He said a demonstration the PKK plans to hold against the AK Party government without waiting for the conclusion of the investigation into the killings shows that the killings are the result of a intra-PKK fight.

Condemnations of the killings of the three Kurdish women in Paris continued on Friday.

Hélène Flautre, the co-chairwoman of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, released a statement on Friday in which she said the murders of three Kurdish women in Paris show that sides have to take immediate and joint action to achieve peace.

Condemning the killings, she called on French authorities to shed light on the incident as soon as possible.

In a written statement, prominent Kurdish singer Şivan Perwer, who resides in Germany, also condemned the killings of the three women, which he described as a provocation aiming to derail the ongoing peace talks.

“When big hopes have emerged among the people over the past days about the settlement of the Kurdish problem, this extraordinary provocative attack was carried out. It is very evident that this massacre aims to deal a blow to the peace efforts. I was shocked by this brutality and in pain which is hard to describe,” said Perwer.

State officials and the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, have been having talks to broker a deal for the disarming of the terrorist group. The talks with Öcalan are being carried out by National Intelligence Organization (MİT) head Hakan Fidan, whose position as a negotiator on behalf of the Turkish state has been confirmed by the government.

There is support for the peace talks from many circles in society, including the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and Turkey's mainstream media.

The terrorist PKK also released a statement on Friday, condemning the shootings in Paris. In its statement, which was posted by the Fırat news agency, the PKK said the “massacre” was carried out professionally and jointly by the Turkish gladio and international power circles.

“It is very obvious that the killings are aimed to sabotage the new solution process launched by leader Apo [refers to Abdullah Öcalan],” said the PKK, adding that the masterminds of the killings will not be able to reach their “dirty goals.”

Independent Van deputy Aysel Tuğluk also on Friday spoke about the killing of the Kurdish women, ruling out claims that the murders were the result of an internal conflict within the PKK.

She suggested that regional powers who do not want Turkey to solve its Kurdish issue may be behind the incident.

“Whenever Turks and Kurds in Turkey reach the negotiation stage, such provocations happen and sabotage the process [of peace efforts],” Tuğluk remarked, highlighting the timing of the killings.

Meanwhile, Hüseyin Yıldırım, uncle of Cansız, who resides in Tunceli, said on Friday that the bullets fired at Cansız and two of her friends were actually fired at peace and brotherhood.

He said the last time he saw Cansız was six years ago.

French police announced on Friday that autopsy procedures of the three women could last as long as a week. The police also said preliminary autopsy reports of the women show that four bullets were fired at one women's head while the other two women had three bullets to their heads and the killings took place at around 6 or 7 p.m. on Wednesday evening.

Families of the women will reportedly bring the bodies to Turkey for burial.

A close friend of Cansız, Aysel Çürükkaya who lives in Germany, said Cansız used to see Öcalan as a dictator and she never bowed before Öcalan.

Çürükkaya said she and Cansız were jailed in Diyarbakır prison at the same time and had known each other for 30 years.

PKK history filled with executions

The prospects of the killing of three Kurdish women in Paris being the result of an intra-PKK job have brought to mind the PKK's slaying of its own members due to internal conflicts.

Cansız's fiancé, Mehmet Şener, was executed by the PKK in Syria in November 1991 to prevent the marriage of the couple because marriages between PKK members is banned in the terrorist organization.

Another PKK member, Cemil Işık, who used to use the codename “Hogır” was killed by the PKK after he parted ways with the terrorist organization because he had been accused of betrayal. Işık was killed in Germany in 1993 by a female PKK terrorist who approached him with marriage plans.

Murat Bayraklı, another PKK terrorist, was also a victim of a PKK execution following the PKK's second congress in 1982. He was burnt to death and his body was found in a garbage container in Berlin in June 1984.

PKK's Zülfü Gök was shot to death in his car in Germany in August 1984 by the PKK on the grounds that he had a relationship with PKK opponent Enver Ata.