The bodies of three Kurdish women, including that of a co-founder of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), were found early on Thursday at the Information Center of Kurdistan in Paris. All three had been shot.The killings took place at a time when Turkey is having talks with the terrorist PKK to resolve the country's long-standing Kurdish problem.Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Söylemez were discovered dead in the building on Rue Lafayette at around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday morning."The scene [of the crime] could give rise to the idea that this was an execution, but the investigation will have to establish the exact circumstances of this incident," a police source told the Agence France-Presse news agency.Söylemez is described as a "young activist" by Kurdish groups, while Cansız is known to have been among the few women who attended the founding congress of the PKK.The Fırat news agency, which is to the PKK, said the third victim, Doğan, was the Paris representative of the Brussels-based Kurdistan National Congress political group.Police launched a murder investigation after discovering the bodies, along with three shell casings, in a room at the center in central Paris, the police source said, adding that the women's nationality was Turkish."Rest assured that French authorities are determined to get to the bottom of these unbearable acts," French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said at the scene, adding the killings were "surely an execution.”The Federation of Kurdish Associations in France has called for a demonstration in Paris. Hundreds of people, including Kurds, gathered on the street where the center is located.The PKK, which is 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.The Turkish government has recently acknowledged holding talks with the organization's jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan.The sides have agreed on a framework for a peace plan, according to media reports.Fırat said two of those killed were shot in the head and one in the stomach, and that the murder weapon was believed to have been fitted with a silencer."A couple of colleagues saw blood stains around the door. When they broke the door and entered they saw the three women had been executed," French Kurdish Associations Federation Chairman Mehmet Ülker was reported as saying by Fırat.Ülker also said preliminary police reports show that the women were killed at around noon on Wednesday.Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the killings might be the result of intra-PKK conflict or a provocative action from some groups who are against the peace process in Turkey."We will wait patiently until light is shed on this incident and will continue our well-intentioned steps [to resolve the Kurdish problem," he said. Erdoğan's remarks came during a visit to Senegal.“The killings could be the work of extremists from the Turkish or Kurdish side who want to sabotage the process of peace talks,” Kendal Nezan, the president of the Kurdish Institute of Paris, told the French television network BFM. Nezan also refuted some news reports which said the incident occurred at the Paris building of the Kurdish Institute.The bodies of the women were removed from the building and sent for an autopsy.The deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Hüseyin Çelik, said the killings might have been “executions conducted within the group,” adding that they do not yet have clear information about the incident.“These kinds of incidents can take place during this process [of peace talks between the Turkish state and the PKK],” Çelik remarked, referring also to a recent violent PKK attack on a gendarmerie outpost in the Çukurca district of the southeastern province of Şırnak, which left one soldier dead and two others injured.The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç also commented on the killings in Paris on Thursday and said it was impossible for him not to condemn such an incident. "This is a saddening incident, I voice my regret," he said.“Three women were massacred in a cowardly way. This is an attack on Kurdish women's fight [for freedom and equality],” Gülten Kışanak, co-chairperson of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), said in comments on the killings.The other BDP co-chairperson, Selahattin Demirtaş, released a statement on Thursday in which he called on the French government to shed light on the killings of the Kurdish women.“We ask everyone to know that these murders which took place in the busiest area of Paris cannot be covered up,” he said, calling on Kurds to condemn the killings in demonstrations.The party released a written statement later on Thursday, announcing that both chairs of the BDP, Kışanak and Demirtaş, will travel to Paris to hold talks with French officials about the killing of the Kurdish women and attend their funeral ceremonies.BDP deputy Sırrı Sakık described the incident in Paris as a "provocation" aimed at overshadowing the ongoing peace process."This is not an ordinary incident. These are bullets which were fired at the optimism for peace," he said, calling on French authorities to shed light on the incident as soon as possible.Meanwhile, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Congress (DTK) released a statement condemning the incident.“Kurdish people are subject to atrocities even in the middle of Europe. This incident shows that the target was not only the Kurdish freedom movement, but also gender equality,” the DTK said in the statement, urging the French state to reveal the perpetrators once they are identified. The group also called on the Kurdish people to “embrace their martyrs” and stage “democratic demonstrations.”A senior PKK operative, Zübeyir Aydar, described the killing of three women in Paris as a “provocation” aimed at derailing the peace talks.He claimed that the “shadowy power circles” which carried out the murders are related to the deep state in Turkey.Amnesty International also made a statement on Thursday regarding the killing of the three Kurdish women in Paris and said the investigation into the incident must be prompt and thorough.“There must be justice for these apparently political killings -- no stone must be left unturned in the investigation by the French authorities,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia program director.“The Turkish authorities must cooperate fully in the investigation to bring those responsible to justice.”“Both sides must ensure that the killings do not derail negotiations aimed at ending the decades-long conflict and ongoing human rights abuses,” said Dalhuisen.Today's Zaman