Erdogan Suggests Paris Killings Internal Kurd Feud

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday the execution-style slaying of three Kurdish activists in Paris bore the marks of an internal feud, Anatolia news agency reported.

"The place was protected not by one lock but many coded locks," Erdogan told reporters, referring to the Kurdistan Information Centre where the three women were found shot dead before dawn on Thursday night.

One of them, Sakine Cansiz, was a founding member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which took up arms in 1984 for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey.

"Those three people opened it (the door). I do not assume they would open it to people they didn't know," Erdogan said aboard a plane returning from Senegal, according to Anatolia.

But the Turkish leader also upheld his earlier suggestion that the slayings could be aimed at derailing peace talks between Ankara and the PKK's jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

"The killings could be the result of an internal feud or steps aimed at disrupting the steps we are taking with good intentions," Erdogan said.

The killings came days after Turkish media reported Turkey and the PKK leadership had reached a roadmap to end the three-decade old insurgency that has claimed more than 45,000 lives. Neither side has confirmed the reports.

The deal was reportedly reached during a new round of talks between Ankara and Ocalan, which the government acknowledges have been takling place for weeks with the aim of disarming the rebels.

The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community.