Sakine Cansız

Sakine Cansız
Born1958 (1958)
Died9 January 2013(2013-01-09) (aged 54–55)
Cause of deathAssassination
Resting placeCansız, Tunceli, Turkey
OccupationKurdish rights advocate
OrganizationKurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)

Sakine Cansız (Turkish pronunciation: [saːciˈne dʒanˈsɯz]; Kurdish: Sakîne Cansiz, IPA: [sɑːkiːnɛ dʒɑːnsɪz]; 1958 9 January 2013) was one of the co-founders of the Kurdistan Workers' Party also recognised as a terrorist organisation by the EU and NATO countries. Australia and NZ have also designated it is a terrorist organisation. (PKK). A Kurdish activist in the 1980s, she was arrested and tortured by Turkish police. A close associate of Abdullah Öcalan and a senior member of the PKK, she was shot dead during the triple murder of Kurdish activists in Paris, France, on 9 January 2013, along with two other female Kurdish activists, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Söylemez.