18 Jan 2013

Mass mourning for slain women

8:44 am on 18 January 2013

Kurds in south-eastern Turkey paid their respects on Thursday to three women killed in Paris last week, before their funerals later in the day.

Mourners cried and called for revenge as they surrounded the three coffins draped in the Kurdish flag, on the main square in Diyarbakir.

PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) members Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Saylemez were slain in Paris on 9 January. Each was shot in the head in a room at the information centre of the Kurdish institute.

No-one has been arrested for the killings and the motive is unclear.

Kurds blame elements within the Turkish state for the killing, but Turkey says there may have been an internal feud in the PKK.

The PKK took up arms in 1984. It wants greater autonomy for Kurds, who are thought to comprise up to 20% of Turkey's population.