Emine (Evîn) Kara was the main target of an attack against a Kurdish cultural centre in Paris on Friday that left two other Kurdish patriots dead, said the co-chairs of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) in a statement on Sunday.

“Our comrade Evîn joined the freedom movement in 1998 and since that day has fought for the freedom of Kurdish people,” the KCK leadership said of Kara, who was also a member of the KCK executive board.

“She was also a leading figure of the women’s struggle,” they said, pointing to Kara’s important contributions to Kurdish women’s liberation and their participation in the armed struggle.

The KCK also emphasised Kara’s contributions to the revolution in the northeastern town of Rojava and to the fight against ISIS. “As a woman, she had the honour of fighting against the regressive and misogynist ISIS and defeating it and also helped us experience the same honour,” it said.

“Our friend Evîn was wounded in the fight against ISIS and went to Europe for treatment,” the Kurdish leadership said, adding that Kara continued her struggle until the day she lost her life.

“It is clear that our friend Evîn was the main target of this attack,” the KCK said, stressing that the Turkish government wanted to save ISIS by repressing the Kurdish freedom struggle and targeting its leaders.

The current Justice and Development Party (AKP) / Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) ruling coalition in Turkey along with the Turkish Intelligence Agency (MİT) had Kara murdered because she fought against ISIS and played a critical role in its defeat, according to the KCK.

The Kurdish leadership criticised France for approaching Friday’s massacre in a simplistic way, ignoring its essence and presenting it as a personal attack.

The KCK recalled that by acting in just such a way, the French authorities left a similar attack in 2013 against a Kurdish information centre unsolved, and stressed that that this was despite the presence of evidence proving that the Turkish state and intelligence agency had organised that attack, in which three female Kurdish activists, including Sakine Cansız, a founder member of the PKK, were assassinated.

“The French state and the government should deal with both massacres in the appropriate way and uncover the truth,” the KCK added.

“The people of Kurdistan and their friends displayed the right attitude by demonstrating their reaction to this massacre in the strongest way,” the Kurdish leadership said. “But no violence should interfere with such protests and any behaviour that might provide a basis for acts of provocation should be avoided,” they concluded.