Seite 40 2018 B E I T R Ä G E 0. Introduction On the evening of January 9, 2013 three women were NLOOHG LQ WKH DSDUWPHQW RIﾀFH RI WKH .XUGLVWDQ ,QIRUPD- tion Centre at the Rue de Lafayette in Paris. The three women had played a prominent role in the Kurdistan lib- HUDWLRQ PRYHPHQW 2QH RI WKHP ZDV 6DNLQH &DQVﾖ] ERUQ in 1958), who was present at the founding congress of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK 1 )) in 1978. In recent years, she had been engaged in lobbying and diplomacy as a member of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), an umbrella organisation of organisations in Kurdistan. 7KH RWKHU ZRPHQ NLOOHG ZHUH )LGDQ 'RøDQ (born in 1982), active as a KNK representative in France, and /H\OD úD\OHPH] ERUQ LQ  D .XUGLVK \RXWK DFWLYLVW Two of the women were killed with a shot to the head, the other with a shot to the stomach. The police found WKUHH EXOOHW FDVLQJV RQ WKH ﾁRRU RI WKH EORRGVWDLQHG apartment. The weapon used had been equipped with a silencer, indicating an execution-style killing. The deputy chairman of the Development and Justice Party (AKP) in Turkey, Huseyin Celik, was quick to declare that the killing of the three women was the result of an ｶLQWHUQDO IHXGｷ ZLWKLQ WKH 3.. 7D\\LS (UGRøDQ DW WKDW time still Prime Minister (he ascended to the Presidency in August 2014), added to this that the killing was most likely an attempt from within the PKK to derail talks with Turkey about a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue. The killing took place in a period direct talks did take place between the imprisoned PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, and Turkish state representatives in 2013, and a three-way communication was established between Turkey, Öcalan and the PKK. Kurdish politicians responded dismissively to the statements made by Turkish political leaders that the killing was related to a struggle between so-called pro-negotiation ‘moderates’ and anti-negotiation ‘radicals’ ZLWKLQ WKH 3.. +'3 SROLWLFLDQ *OWDQ .ﾖûDQDN VDLG ｶ+RZ dare they present the murder of a revolutionary as internal strife without any evidence?’ 2 ) From containment and rollback to escalation: Turkey’s Kurdish issue under the AKP Joost Jongerden This article will argue that the meetings between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party PKK EHWZHHQ ｲ ZHUH HPSOR\HG E\ WKH 7XUNLVK VWDWH WR JDLQ DGYDQWDJH LQ WKH FRQﾁLFW WKH\ ZHUH VXSSRVHG WR EH DLPHG DW UHVROYLQJ 7KLV DSSUDLVDO RI WKH 3..7XUNH\ WDONV WKXV KHOSV WR explain the escalation in the summer of 2015 – as the result, that is, not of a failed process of negotiations but of a failed intelligence operation. Later in the month, the French police arrested a Turk- ish national named Ömer Güney in connection with the killing of the three women. It became clear that the suspect had been a frequent visitor of a Kurdish com- munity centre in Villiers-le-Bel in Paris, participated in HYHQWV DQG ZDV DQ RFFDVLRQDO GULYHU IRU 6DNLQH &DQVﾖ] Only a month before the murder of the three women, in December 2012, he had been present at a meeting of Kurdish youth in the Netherlands. The meeting was raided by the police, and, together with 54 other partici- pants, Güney was held for questioning, being among the ﾀUVW UHOHDVHG 3 ) Although his membership of the Kurdish community centre in Villiers-le-Bel and his participation in activities suggested he was a sympathiser of the PKK, however, things were not as they appeared. In 2013, one year after the killing of the three women, an audio recording posted on the Internet revealed a conversation between Güney and two MIT operatives in which the three were planning the killings. Then, an alleged MIT internal document dated November 18, 2012 and entitled ‘Sakine Cansiz’ suggested that the intelligence organisation had ‘engaged a person code-named “Legionnaire” for an “attack/sabotage/ assassination” against PKK targets in France and paid him (8,000 US dollar) for expenses’. 4 ) The French indict- ment, published by the Le Monde newspaper, mentioned contacts between Güney and MIT: ‘A large amount of evidence strengthens the idea that MIT was involved in the preparation and committing of the assassination’. 5 ) 1) See also the list of acronyms. 2) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/3-kurdish-women-allegedly- assassinated-in-paris/2/.  KWWSVZZZYSURQODUJRVPHGLDDﾁHYHULQJHQGH/DQJH$UP YDQ7XUNLMHKWPO 4) https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/01/turkey- military-mit-kurds-murder-paris-activists.html. 5) http://ekurd.net/turkey-behind-2013-paris-kurd-killings-2015-07-25 and http://www.lemonde.fr/police- MXVWLFH/article/2015/07/23/