In Paris, anger and sadness after the triple murder of the rue d’Enghien

Faces marked by anger and mourning: such was the climate of the rally, this Saturday, at the call of the Kurdish Democratic Council in France, which was joined by several left-wing parties and associations, including the French Communist Party or even the France-Kurdistan association. Around 2:30 p.m., the organizers called for the dispersal of the demonstrators, while clashes broke out on the sidelines of the rally, and the police blocked access around the Place de la République, where it was taking place.

The hundreds of participants in the rally came to cry out their sense of injustice and their sadness after the murders of three Kurds and the wounds inflicted on three other people by the shooter in the rue d’Enghien, in Paris, around noon on Friday. The 69-year-old suspect, already convicted and imprisoned in the past for committing serious violence, was arrested shortly after the incident.

« What we feel is pain and incomprehension because it’s not the first time it’s happened, » Esra, a 23-year-old student, told AFP, referring to the triple murder of three Kurdish activists committed almost a decade ago in the French capital, in 2013.

Many demonstrators waved flags of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its leader, who has been detained for twenty-three years on the Turkish prison island of Imrali, Abdullah Öcalan. A minute of silence was observed in music, in memory of the victims and » all the Kurds who died for freedom”. Among the crowd, many denounced Friday’s assassination as an act terrorist » and » Politics « . The suspicions of the demonstrators relate to the Turkish services, which they suspect of being behind the racist motive of the shooter. Disturbing circumstance: the assassin appeared on the scene of the tragedy at the precise time when a meeting of Kurdish women was to be held, raising questions about the identity and motivations of those who could have informed him (see on this subject article by Pierre Barbancey).

« France must stop its haggling with Erdogan »

A little earlier, on Saturday, Kurdish representatives were received by the Paris police chief, Laurent Nunez. » There is no doubt for us that these are political assassinations. The fact that our associations are being targeted is of a terrorist and political nature,” affirmed, at the end of the meeting, Agit Polat, spokesperson for the Kurdish Democratic Council in France. He also regretted a » lack of security” on the scene of the shootings, whose safety is placed“under the responsibility of the French authorities”.

« This new assassination is too much, was indignant, in a press release, the France-Kurdistan association.Do we want once again, in the name of reason of state, to protect the Turkish state while we verify that complacency towards it can only encourage murderous acts? We have constantly warned that impunity encourages recidivism. » For his part, the communist senator Pierre Laurent took the floor in the rally to demand“that France expresses itself clearly and strongly to condemn Erdogan’s current actions (against the Kurds and against Rojava, Syrian Kurdistan – Editor’s note). France must stop its haggling (with Turkish President Erdogan)”. The elected communist also called for« to make January 7 a major demonstration not only of solidarity with the Kurdish people (on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the assassination in Paris of the Kurdish activists Fidan Doğan, Sakine Cansiz and Leyla Söylemez – editor’s note), but a demonstration for the freedom, for democracy, for women’s rights, for the democratic future of Kurdistan”.