Le Monde publishes indictment claiming MİT involved in Paris murder of 3 PKK women

Kurdish women protesting the murder of three senior female PKK members in Paris in 2013. (Photo: Cihan)

July 24, 2015, Friday/ 13:42:50/ EMRE DEMİR / PARIS

A prosecutor's office in Paris has accused Turkey's National Intelligence Organization(MİT) of involvement in the assassination of three senior female members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Paris in 2013, according to an indictment published by the Le Monde newspaper.

According to the report, the Paris prosecutor overseeing the investigation is demanding that Ömer Güney, the only suspect in the case, be indicted for the killing of PKK members Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Söylemez on Jan. 9, 2013. The three Kurdish women were found dead of gunshot wounds at the Kurdistan Information Bureau in Paris. The prosecutor completed the 70-page indictment after two-and-a-half years of work on the case.

According to the indictment, Güney was in touch with top MİT official K.T., but the Turkish government did not respond to a request for information regarding K.T. "There are numerous elements that allow us to suspect that MİT was involved in the instigation and preparation of the assassination. It was discovered that Ömer Güney was engaged in spying activities and there were a number of spies in Turkey he had been secretly in touch with," Le Monde quoted the indictment as saying.

Güney will appear before a French court in September as the single suspect in the murder. The indictment was finalized on July 7 and a gag order was issued on the probe. However, Le Monde obtained a copy of the indictment and shared crucial details in its Thursday edition. Le Monde also mentioned President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's remarks accusing the faith-based Gülen movement inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, of having "committed a series of murders in Paris" so as to "sabotage" the peace process between the Turkish government and the PKK.

According to Le Monde, Erdoğan's theory that individuals inspired by the Gülen movement had infiltrated institutions such as MİT and the police force, creating what he refers to as a “parallel state,” was refuted with the disclosure of what was allegedly internal MİT correspondence by Turkish media outlets on Jan. 14, 2014 which suggested that Cansız was the main target of the attack and that 6,000 euros had been paid for her to be killed.

The assassination of the three women took place shortly after the Turkish government launched talks with the PKK, recognized as a terrorist organization by the EU, the US and Turkey, in order to resolve the country's long-standing Kurdish problem in the Southeast.
Turkish daily Karşı claimed in February last year that Güney had close ties to MİT. The same claim had already been denied by MİT despite the release of a voice recording allegedly featuring a conversation between Güney and two MİT agents. The French forensic police concluded that it was highly likely that the voice recording was authentic.

Karşı's report came after Ankara rejected a request from the French Ministry of Justice to reveal the identity of Güney's contacts. Of the 13 numbers on Güney's phone, five were landlines, while the others belonged to mobile phones, the report claimed. According to Le Monde's report, one of the 13 phone numbers on Güney's phone contact list was a MİT number.

Turkey's former Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ also denied in January of last year any links between MİT and the murders and MİT has also denied allegations that it was the instigator of the murders. A statement released by the intelligence organization said an internal administrative investigation of the claims had been launched.

Keywords: Paris killings , MİT , National Intelligence Organization , Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , PKK