several thousand demonstrators in Paris, the racist motive retained

Saturday noon, several thousand people paid tribute to the three victims and three others injured in the shooting that took place near a Kurdish cultural center the day before. In the crowd, many demonstrators waved flags of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) or the effigy of three Kurdish activists murdered in January 2013 in Paris.

Violence broke out between demonstrators and the police on the sidelines of the rally organized on Saturday in Paris. Several cars were overturned, including at least one set on fire, and garbage cans burned on Boulevard du Temple, near Place de la République. The security forces, targeted by projectile jets, responded by firing tear gas canisters.

In the Kurdish community, very present in the district of the capital affected by the attack, anger mingled with emotion. Violent incidents had already erupted on Friday between the police and members of the community who spoke of an act ” terrorist and implicated Turkey.

Racist motivation

The main suspect of the shooting that killed three people and injured three others Friday in the 10th arrondissement of Paris is still in police custody, which has been extended. During his discussions with the police, the 69-year-old French retiree told a police officer that he had acted because he was ” racist “. The Paris prosecutor’s office also announced that the “ racist motive of the facts was added to the investigation opened for assassinations, attempted assassinations, violence with a weapon and violations of the laws on weapons.

To our colleagues at BFM TV, the spokesperson for the Kurdish Democratic Council in France, Agit Polat, expressed his conviction that this is a terrorist and political act directed against the Kurdish community: “ We Kurdish activists who fight in France for the interests of the Kurdish people, for the Kurdish cause, for the fundamental recognition of the rights of the Kurdish people, we are obviously targeted by Turkey, by Erdogan, as was the case January 9, 2013 during the triple assassination of Kurdish militants (…) for us, there is no doubt that these are political assassinations orchestrated by Turkey ».

Among the three victims is Emine Kara, a leader of the Kurdish Women’s Movement in France, according to the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F). She had applied for political asylum. rejected by the French authorities “, according to the spokesperson of the movement, Agit Polat. The other two deceased men are Abdulrahman Kizil, “ an ordinary Kurdish citizen “who frequented” daily the association, and Mir Perwer, a Kurdish artist recognized as a political refugee and prosecuted in Turkey for his art “, according to the CDK-F.

The track of the terrorist attack dismissed

The track of a terrorist attack has been ruled out at this stage of the investigations, arousing the incomprehension and anger of the CDK-F. “ The fact that our associations are targeted is of a terrorist and political nature “said Agit Polat after his meeting with the prefect of police.

The suspect, who frequented a shooting range, ” wanted to pick on strangers ” and “ obviously acted alone “, estimated Friday the French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who added that he was unknown to the intelligence services, but not to justice. Indicted since December 2021, he is suspected of having stabbed migrants at a camp in Paris and of having slashed their tents. After a year in pre-trial detention, he was released on December 12, as required by French law, and placed under judicial supervision, according to the prosecutor.

He was also sentenced in 2017 to a six-month suspended prison sentence for prohibited possession of weapons and, last June, to twelve months’ imprisonment for violence with weapons committed in 2016. He appealed against this conviction.

(with agencies)