The three women, who included Sakine Cansız, a co-founder of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), were shot in the head execution-style at a Kurdish information Centre in Paris on January 9, 2013. Kurdish activists Leyla Soylemez and Fidan Dogan were also killed.

"Something needs to be done about the (PKK) elements in Europe. It has been done previously in Paris. But…” Pekin said, in comments to CNN Turk, published by pro-Kurdish journalist Meltem Oktay.

Pekin led the intelligence unit attached to the military’s General Staff between 2007 and 2011.

Omer Guney, a maintenance worker at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, was the only suspect held over the murders. Security camera footage showed him in the building at the time. A few months later, an audio recording between Guney and suspected National Intelligence Agency (MIT) agents was released on the Internet.

Guney died in December 2016 from a brain tumor, after which France dropped all legal proceedings. In 2019, French prosecutors re-opened the probe. Jean-Louis Malterre, a lawyer representing the victims, told the pro-Kurdish Firat News Agency at the time that the new inquiry would investigate MIT’s possible role in the murders.

MIT has denied ordering the killings, instead suggesting that they were related to internal disputes within the PKK. The group has fought for Kurdish autonomy from Turkey for more than three decades.

Reporter's code: 50101