Leyla Saylemez, Sakine Cansiz and Fidan Dogan

Statement by Peace in Kurdistan campaign:

Today, 9 January 2020, we mark the seventh anniversary of the brutal assassinations of Sakine Cansiz and her colleagues Fidan Dogan and Leyla Saylemez in their office at the Kurdish Information Centre in Paris on 9 January 2013. We remember them in love, respect and gratitude and pay tribute to their remarkable achievements and fortitude.

Sakine was a deeply inspiring life-long activist and founding member of the PKK. She spent many years imprisoned in terrible conditions and was tortured in Diyarbakir prison in the 1980s after the military coup. She led the protest movement inside the prison and after her release joined the armed struggle for Kurdish liberation and was the powerful force and inspiration for the Kurdish women’s movement, which remains to this day a beacon of hope for women in the Middle East, and which was at the forefront of the battle against ISIS in Syria. Fidan and Leyla were also talented and dedicated activists each playing an important role in the international work for the liberation of the Kurdish people.

The slaughter of these three courageous Kurdish women came at a time in 2013 when Abdullah Ocalan had called for the weapons to fall silent and for ideas to speak. There was much optimism that the new peace process would bear fruit. Their murders were symbolic of the brutal turn from the path of peace towards a renewed conflict. The hopes of many were dashed as their bloodied bodies lay dying.

We continue to hold out hope that the process can be restarted and are convinced that this would be the most fitting tribute to these women who worked tirelessly for the freedom of their people and gave their lives for the struggle.