Thousands gather for slain Kurds’ funeral

Several thousand Kurds gathered on Thursday in a square in Diyarbakir, the main city of Turkey’s Kurd-majority southeast, to pay a final tribute to three Kurdish women activists who were assassinated in Paris last week.

The growing crowd of participants, men and women adorned in white scarves, a symbol of peace, marched in a funeral many in Turkey feared would turn into a violent protest.

Tens of thousands more were expected to pour in to pray and pay homage at the coffins of the three victims, placed on small platforms at Batikent square on the outskirts of Diyarbakir.

The three women, one of them Sakine Cansiz, a co-founder of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), were found fatally shot, at least three times in their heads, at a Kurdish centre in Paris last week. French police were hunting the unknown assailants.

The bodies were brought back home late on Wednesday, as thousands escorted them from Diyarbakir airport to a hospital morgue, blowing their horns and chanting “Martyrs will live forever”.

Security forces remained on alert, as several police squads were deployed to the airport and many more watched the hospital where the bodies were kept overnight.