The Executive Committee of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) pointed out the direct responsibility of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP government on the occasion of the anniversary of the Paris killings on 9 January 2013. In a statement, the PKK draws a parallel between the lack of a legal investigation into the murder of Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez and the rise of the ISIS and the current conflict situation in the Middle East.

The statement of the PKK Executive Committee marking the 7th anniversary of the assassination of PKK founding member Sakine Cansız, KNK Paris Representative Fidan Doğan and Youth Movement member Leyla Şaylemez includes the following:

"Everywhere there are protests against this massacre and commemoration ceremonies for the murdered. We condemn the perpetrators and those responsible in anger and remember in love, respect and gratitude Sakine Cansız (Sara), who was a founding member of our party, the PKK, as well as Fidan Doğan (Rojbîn) and Leyla Şaylemez (Ronahî) as honourable militants of our movement.

Even seven years after the crime, despite the obvious situation, no one has been convicted for the murders. The French government has sacrificed law and justice for material interests. Light was shed on murder of the three Kurdish women revolutionaries on 9 January 2013 only after a few months. The murderer Ömer Güney was caught and it was clearly established that he was an employee of the Turkish secret service MIT, that the murder was ordered by MIT under the leadership of Hakan Fidan and that the decision to carry out the murder was made by the Turkish government under Tayyip Erdoğan. In short, the MIT, the AKP leadership and the Turkish government are responsible for the murders. It was not difficult to understand that the AKP, which supports the ISIS and carries out massacres of Kurds from Roboski to Tal Rifat, also murdered three revolutionaries in Paris. However, the French government and judiciary did not take this fact into account and did not bring the murders in Paris to account. They therefore owe to the Kurds and to humanity.

And why has French justice not condemned this flagrant crime? The answer to this question is as simple as it is bitter: the three murdered women were Kurds and were fighting for freedom. Crimes committed against the Kurds are not prosecuted anywhere, why should it be any different in France? This fact has been demonstrated once again with the murders in Paris. Mankind, especially the Kurds and the French, has been greatly harmed.

In this context it makes sense to underline the following facts once again: If the murders in Paris had been expressly prosecuted, the ISIS would have had less impact and caused less harm to humanity. Had a timely trial been held and the guilty convicted, the Turkish state would not have been able to occupy Afrin, attack Rojava on October 9, 2019, occupy Girê Spî and Serêkaniyê and commit massacres. If the murders in Paris had been prosecuted and the murderers had been punished, Turkey would not send soldiers to Libya today, the US government would not murder unwanted people with missiles at Baghdad airport, the Middle East and humanity would not experience the current escalation in the conflict between the US and Iran. If the murderers of Paris had been tried and convicted, the international conspiracy against the Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan, which started on October 9, 1998, would not continue and therefore Kurdistan and the Middle East would not remain in a bloodbath without any prospect of a solution.

It is obvious that the Paris massacre of January 9, 2013 is very important and plays an influential and enlightening role in the events that have taken place since then until today. All these facts have been revealed with the struggle that women, the Kurdish people and their friends have been waging over the last seven years. The existence of the Kurdish people and their liberation struggle have become known throughout the world. As was also shown during the activities for the World Rojava Day on November 2, the Kurds have won the support of the oppressed and exploited humanity. This is the biggest gain that the Kurds and their struggle for freedom have gained.

So, since the way of thinking and politics based on patriarchy, Kurdish hostility, colonialism and massacres were not tried and convicted in Paris, the fascist murderers continue their attacks also today. For example, the AKP/MHP government is not satisfied with the continuation of its occupation attacks on Rojava, it wants to extend its military aggression to Libya. The US administration is sending troops to the whole region in defiance of the political will of the peoples of the Middle East and wants to restructure it according to its own interests. The nation states in the region, especially Iran and Turkey, are blocking the way to democratisation with their existing dictatorial structures. They make it impossible to solve existing problems and they create new problems.

This is the main reason for the war between the US and Iran, which the peoples of the region and the whole of humanity have been confronted with at the beginning of 2020. The forces that create conflicts in the Middle East and thus create chaos and crisis want to overcome chaos and crisis with war, but this is not possible. As Kurds and as peoples of the region, the Third World War is forced upon us. We reject such an intervention of the global hegemonic powers in the Middle East. We want the region's nation-state dictatorships, which prepare the ground and provide a justification for an intervention from outside, to open up to democracy and take into account the will of the peoples. On this basis, we as the PKK are fighting for freedom and democracy and declare that the solution to the problems lies in supranational democratisation. The solution to the problems of the Middle East and humanity lies in the system of democratic confederalism developed by Abdullah Öcalan, which is based on democratic autonomy. We invite all oppressed peoples to understand, discuss and implement this system.

For humanity, the year 2020 has begun in a much more tense atmosphere of war. Global and regional forces want to assert their interests and try to get everyone else to follow them. As PKK and as Kurdish people, we will not follow anybody and we will fight with all our strength for the democratisation of Turkey, for free Kurdistan and democracy in the Middle East by smashing the AKP/MHP fascism by forming a unity with the peoples of Turkey. By carrying this struggle to victory, we will keep alive the memory of our martyrs and achieve their goals.

On this basis, we commemorate with respect and gratitude the Parisian martyrs Sara, Rojbîn and Ronahî on the seventh anniversary of their deaths and our companions Rubar, Halil and Murat, who fell in the Medya Defense Zones on January 6, 2017, on the third anniversary of their deaths. In memory of comrades Sara and Rubar, we commemorate all the martyrs of the liberation struggle and declare that we will realize their goals - a free Kurdistan, freedom for Rebêr Apo (Leader Öcalan) and a free life - under all circumstances. On this basis, we call on all our companions, our people and our friends not to fall for the distracting tricks of the ruling forces, to concentrate all their strength on the the struggle to smash the AKP/MHP fascism and to definitively succeed.”