The day following the gun attack that left three dead near a Kurdish cultural center in Paris, clashes broke out on the sidelines of a demonstration organized by Kurdish organizations in tribute to the victims.
Friday, near a Kurdish cultural center in the 10th district of Paris, an individual murdered two men and a woman, and injured three other men, including one seriously according to the latest reports.
The alleged shooter, a 69-year-old retired train driver of French nationality, was known to security services for two attempted homicides in 2016 and December 2021. However, his name was not listed in the files of territorial intelligence and the general direction of internal security (DGSI).
Mastered by several people in a hair salon in the shopping district where the crime was committed, the alleged murderer, himself injured, was arrested and taken to hospital.
This attack provoked strong emotion within the Kurdish community, which called for demonstrations this Saturday across France. Members of this community have also pointed their fingers at Turkey, which they suspect behind this act which they describe as “terrorist”.
Indeed, the three people who died in the attack were Kurdish militants. The woman killed, Emine Kara, was a leader of the Kurdish Women’s Movement in France, according to the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDKF). She had applied for political asylum “rejected by the French authorities”, movement spokesperson Agit Polat told the press on Friday. The two men who died are Abdulrahman Kizil, “an ordinary Kurdish citizen”, and Mir Perwer, a Kurdish artist recognized as a political refugee and “prosecuted in Turkey for his art”, according to the CDKF.
On the morning of this Saturday, before the start of the demonstrations, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced that ” the racist motive of the facts ” has been ” added to the investigation opened for assassinations, attempted assassinations, violence with weapons, and violations of the legislation on weapons.
The suspect, who frequented a shooting range, ” wanted to pick on strangers » et « obviously acted alone “, estimated Friday the French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.
« It is not sure that the killer who wanted to assassinate these people (…) did it specifically for the Kurds “, he had underlined.
In Marseille, 1,500 people, according to the police headquarters, marched calmly in tribute to the victims at the call of the association for the defense of the rights of the Kurds Solidarity and Freedom. In Bordeaux, a demonstration gathered calmly at midday some 150 people in the city center.
But it is in Paris that the biggest demonstration has been programmed. Not convinced by the preliminary statements of the police, several demonstrators shouted their anger. ” There is no doubt for us that these are political assassinations. The fact that our associations are targeted is of a terrorist and political nature “, affirmed at the end of the meeting Agit Polat, who regretted a ” lack of security ».
Around 1 p.m., an hour following the start of the rally in Place de la République, clashes began on Boulevard du Temple, a hundred meters from the square. A few dozen demonstrators threw projectiles at the police, who responded by firing tear gas, shouting ” Long live the resistance of the Kurdish people ».
The demonstration ended up degenerating with several cars, burning of garbage cans, and violent clashes with the police. The procession, originally several thousand people strong, split in two because of these tensions and only a few hundred demonstrators managed to reach the Place de la Bastille shortly following 2 p.m., the arrival point of the procession.
