Fidan Doğan


Fidan Doğan was a Kurdish activist, who worked at the Kurdish information centre in Paris and also represented the Brussels-based Kurdish National Congress in France.
Born in Elbistan in southern Turkey, Doğan moved to France when she was young. She grew up in Strasbourg, where she completed her university education. She was engaged in the Kurdistan National Congress and was a women's rights activist.

Death

She was assassinated in Paris on 9 January 2013, along with Sakine Cansız and Leyla Şöylemez. On the 17 January in Diyarbakir tens of thousands of Kurds remembered the three women in a ceremony. Her funeral was conducted by an Alevi dede. She was buried in her family's village in the province of Kahramanmaraş's Elbistan district.

Aftermath

Tributes after her death revealed that she was well known in political circles, as well as being close to Abdullah Öcalan, one of the founders of the Kurdistan Workers' Party. The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, made a point of receiving her family to pay his condolences in person. The rapporteur for Turkey of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, Josette Durrieu, also paid tribute in glowing terms.
François Hollande's statement that he knew one of the three women assassinated in Paris, raised speculation that Doğan was also in regular contact with the French president.
After her death, there was considerable speculation that the killing of the three women was an attempt to derail the fledgling peace process that had recently begun between the Turkish authorities and Öcalan.