Turkey committed to solving Kurd issue

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ANKARA, Turkey, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- The slaying in Paris of three members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party has made public will to resolve the Kurdish issue in Turkey stronger, an adviser said.

Sakine Cansiz, a co-founder of the separatist movement, known by its Kurdish initials PKK, was among the three women found shot to death at a Kurdish center in Paris last week.

Yalcin Akdogan, a top policy adviser for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the shooting deaths of the PKK members strengthened public will for a solution to simmering issues with the Kurdish minority in Turkey.

"Some people might have wanted to dash hopes for a permanent settlement of the Kurdish issue," he was quoted by Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman as saying. "On the contrary, the murders have increased resolve among the public for peace."

The Paris shootings came as Ankara reached out to jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to find a solution to a crisis brewing since the 1980s.

Erdogan last week suggested the shooting was an inside job carried out by hard-line PKK members working to derail peace talks.

A move to settle issues with the Kurdish minority was upended in 2009 when a court banned the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party from politics because of alleged ties to the PKK.