These people are not terrorists, BDP head says at Paris protest

ISTANBUL

Thousands of Kurds and PKK supporters gathered in Paris today.

Three members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), recently found murdered in Paris, were conducting civil politics and were not terrorists, the Kurdish-focused Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) head said today during a protest held in the French capitol. 

Responding to earlier comments issued by Turkey's prime minister to French President François Hollande demanding an explanation as to why France's leader was meeting with terrorists, Selahattin Demirtas called the murdered women 'people who conducted civil politics.' 

"Those should not be the kind of statements that a prime minister striving for peace makes," Demirtas said. "These people are not terrorists. They were conducting civil politics. Instead of questioning that you should be working to solve these murders, these massacres. That is what the prime minister of Turkey should be doing right now."

Thousands of Kurds and PKK supporters gathered in Paris today, including Diyarbakir Deputy Leyla Zana. 
European PKK representatives, Zubeyiz Aydar and Remzi Kartal were also present at the protest. 

The crowds chanted slogangs of revenge, according to daily Hürriyet.