Racist crime or political terror?

On December 24, last year, hundreds of Kurds protested at Republique Square in Paris, France to honor the victims of the shooting and demand an investigation. One person died and three were injured. Five of the six victims were Kurds. The incident took place around noon at a restaurant, hair salon and Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish Cultural Center on Angien Street. The suspect arrested is a 69-year-old French man named William M. According to French prosecutors, the suspect faces charges of willful murder, violence and violation of arms laws. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who visited the scene, said, “It is clear that (the perpetrator) targeted foreigners, but it is not yet known whether they were specifically targeting Kurds.” The Interior Ministry has deployed 24-hour police in areas where there is a high concentration of Turkic people and Kurds. The Kurds are a nomadic people who do not have an independent state and are spread out in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. It is estimated that there are about 40 million people in total, about 17 million of whom live in Turkiye, and are subject to political and social oppression. Kurdish independence movements are being waged all over the world. About 240,000 Kurds live in France. According to the investigative authorities, the culprit was a retired engineer from the French National Railways (SNCF), who called himself a ‘racist’. On December 24 last year, the investigative authorities judged that the suspect was at a level where he could not continue the interrogation, and requested a mental evaluation from the National Police Agency Hospital. The criminal had two violent crimes against foreigners. According to his statement on Dec. 25, he allegedly injured a burglar who entered his home in 2016 with a weapon. “After that, his dislike of foreigners turned completely pathological. Before he committed suicide, he wanted to kill migrants and foreigners.” On December 8, 2021, he was arrested for injuring migrants with a fencing knife at a migrant camp near Parc Bercy in the 12th district of Paris. After being detained in a detention center, he was released under judicial supervision on December 12 last year when the trial did not end until his maximum detention period of one year had passed. The crime was committed less than two weeks after that. Originally, the killer intended to kill foreigners in Sen Saint-Denis, an immigrant-populated area, but the plan was abandoned because there were few people. He instead walked to the Rue Anghien and committed the crime. The gun used in the crime was obtained from a member of the shooting club four years ago. Why were they Kurds? Prosecutor Lor Becouo said that the perpetrator had stated that “the Kurds were disgusted because he did not immediately kill Daesh (the Arab term for IS) and took him prisoner.” However, Kurdish-related groups do not view the incident as a ‘xenophobic crime’. They claim that it is political terrorism targeting the Kurds. One of the three killed was French Kurdish women’s movement leader Emine Cara. The Turkiye-born Kurdish autonomy activist had applied for asylum to the French government and had appealed after it was denied. Azi Paula, spokesperson for the French Kurdistan Council for Democracy (CDKF), who appeared on Radio France Info, said, “The current situation cannot be regarded as a mere attack by a French far-right. It’s because I’ve been living as a group settled in France for 40 years, and I’ve never had a problem with the ‘French far-right’ at any moment.” The CDKF released a statement on the day of the incident and condemned the shooting. They demanded an investigation from the French government and held a rally to commemorate the victims. A rally held on December 24 last year at Republique Square turned violent, resulting in armed clashes between demonstrators and police, resulting in about 30 injuries. Ten years ago, three Kurdish women were murdered, and the Kurds demanded that the French government treat the incident as a case of political terrorism and investigate it. However, the French authorities entrusted the investigation of the case to the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, not the National Prosecutor’s Office for Counterterrorism (PNAT), on the grounds that no links to far-right forces or terrorist groups were found in the suspect’s interrogation and home seizure. In the daily newspaper on December 24, William Juliet, a lawyer specializing in criminal law, said, “If the perpetrator is a racist psychotic targeting (arbitrary) foreigners, the charge of terrorism will not be admitted. “Terrorism charges can be admitted if it is discovered that they are specifically targeting the Kurds or that they have ties to the Turkish government,” he said. It is not the first time that Kurds have been killed in France. On January 9, 2013, three women belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were murdered in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. A similar controversy arose at this time. The arrested suspect died of a brain tumor ahead of trial in 2016. Even after the perpetrator’s death, the bereaved family insisted that the perpetrator was related to the Turkiye government and demanded that the accomplice be investigated, but it was not accepted. In this process, the French Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense did not provide relevant information due to ‘national security secrets’. On December 23 last year, when the incident took place, a meeting was held to prepare for the 10th anniversary of the 2013 incident. “It is no coincidence that the attack took place at this time,” said Hélène Dersim, a Kurdish politician in exile who appeared on the French 3TV channel on December 24. It is a political act,” he said. However, the French government is cautious about applying terrorism charges. On December 24, Attorney General Eric Dupont Moretti said, “The difference between racist crimes and acts of terrorism, which stem from their ugly nature, lies in whether or not they agree with political ideas.” It is difficult for the French government to classify the incident as political terrorism hastily. This is because there is a risk of escalating into a diplomatic dispute. Even at the time of the murder in 2013, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Türkiye demanded then French President François Hollande to “explain the relationship between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party members and the French government.” At this meeting, President Erdogan called the Kurdistan Workers’ Party “terrorists.” On December 26 last year, the criminal was charged with murder and attended the preliminary trial. On the same day, the French Kurdish Democratic Council held a silent protest from the street where the shooting took place to the street of Lafayette, where the murder occurred 10 years ago. Protesters marched with placards condemning the Turkiye government and Kurdistan Workers Party flags. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted on the day of the attack, “The Kurds in France have been targeted in a horrific attack in the center of Paris. I think of the victims, the people struggling to live, and the bereaved families.” In 2019, President Macron criticized Turkiye’s attack on the Kurds in an interview with the British business weekly The Economist, but he did not comment further on the incident. AFP reported on December 26 that the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Herve Magro, the French ambassador to Turkey, to “express dissatisfaction with the fact that agitation against Turkey is spreading through the Kurdistan Workers Party.”

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