Paris killing victim buried with participation of thousands

KAHRAMANMARAŞ - Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

Fidan Doğan, who was among three women killed Jan. 9 at the Kurdistan Information Center in Paris, was buried earlier today in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş’s Elbistan district.

A funeral was organized for Doğan, the Paris representative of the Brussels-based Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), with the participation of around 5,000 people.

Doğan's coffin was wrapped with a flag of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) while mourners wore white scarves symbolizing peace.

An Alevi dede led the crowd in a funeral prayer. Doğan was eventually interred in the district’s Hançıplak neighborhood.

In addition to Doğan’s family, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Gülten Kışanak, as well as BDP deputies Nursel Aydoğan, Ayla Akat Ata, Hasip Kaplan and İbrahim Binici, were all present at the funeral, along with Diyarbakır Metropolitan Mayor Osman Baydemir.

Doğan's father thanked the mourners and condemned the murders, as well as the method used to slay the three women.

"All of them were shot with three bullets to the head. They were savagely killed," Hasan Doğan said. “Peace is not too difficult to achieve; I hope for peace. I wish my sorrow would be the last.”

"We promise to all Kurdish women and these three women [who were killed]: We will bring peace and freedom to this land,” Kışanak said at the funeral.

"Our sorrow is deep. They wanted to undermine the peace initiatives of [imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan] by killing these three women, but they won't succeed,” she said.

Security forces were present at the funeral but kept their distance from the crowd.
 
Meanwhile, a public funeral was organized for another of the three victims, PKK co-founder Sakine Cansız, in the eastern province of Tunceli with the participation of around 10,000 people. The other victim, Leyla Söylemez, was to be interred in the southern province of Mersin.