Post Paris shooting, Kurds, anti-racism organisations unite
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Sulaiman
- . December 26, 2022
- . Update: December 26, 2022 6:57 pm
After three people were slain at a Kurdish cultural centre in an attack that authorities believe was racially motivated, members of the Kurdish community in France and anti-racism campaigners came together in Paris on Saturday to express their grief and outrage.
In addition to injuring three people, the shooting in a busy area of downtown Paris raised questions about hate crimes against minorities at a time when far-right voices have become more prominent in France and across Europe in recent years.
According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, the alleged attacker was hurt, taken into custody, and then sent to psychiatric treatment on Saturday. The 69-year-old Parisian, who was arrested last year on charges of attacking a migrant camp, was let go from jail earlier this month. According to the prosecutor’s office, he could be charged with murder and attempted murder for the gunshot on Friday.
Thousands of people gathered on Saturday at the Place de la Republique in eastern Paris, waving a vibrant array of flags that supported many causes, including Kurdish rights organisations and left-wing political organisations.
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Although some adolescents launched projectiles and lit a few cars and trash cans on fire, the gathering was generally peaceful. To separate the throng, police used tear gas. Some demonstrators yelled insults at the Turkish government. The incident started as several people drove by waving Turkish flags, according to Berivan Firat of the Kurdish Democratic Council in France, who was speaking to BFM TV.
The majority of the protesters were ethnic Kurds of all generations who gathered to pay tribute to the three other Kurds who died, among them a well-known feminist activist and a Kurdish singer who fled to France.
“We are truly devastated. We lost a very significant part of our community, and we are devastated and furious about it. How is that even possible? remarked the demonstrator Yekbun Ogur, a biology teacher in a middle school in Paris. Is it typical for a gunman to enter a place of worship and massacre people there?
As he talked about the victims and his anxieties, demonstrator Yunus Cicek brushed away his tears. “This place is not protecting us. I don’t feel secure despite having political refugee status. Perhaps I’ll do it the next time.
The shooting shocked the Kurdish community and increased police vigilance in France over the Christmas holiday. In an effort to ease their concerns, the Paris police chief visited with representatives of the Kurdish community on Saturday.
Following an 11% increase from 2018 to 2019, France’s Interior Ministry estimated a 13% increase in crimes or other offences involving race in 2021 compared to 2019. 2020 was excluded from the ministry’s data because to the year’s string of pandemic lockdowns. According to the report, a disproportionate number of these crimes target people of African heritage. It also listed other attacks that were motivated by religion.
The cultural centre, an adjacent Kurdish restaurant, and a Kurdish hair salon were all targets of Friday’s attack. According to surveillance footage from the hair salon that was posted online, customers managed to stop the assault before the cops arrived. The prosecutor’s office declined to provide more information on the specifics of his arrest.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin claimed that the suspect had acted alone and had no official affiliation with any extreme-right or other radical movements, but had definitely targeted foreigners. The suspect had already been found guilty of both unlawful gun possession and armed assault.
Kurdish activists claimed that police had lately alerted them to threats against Kurdish targets.
Three female Kurdish activists were found shot to death in 2013 in a Kurdish centre in Paris, including Sakine Cansiz, the PKK’s founder and one of the three.
The Turkish army has long fought against PKK-affiliated Kurdish insurgents in southeast Turkey as well as northern Iraq. Recently, the Turkish military also carried out a number of air and artillery attacks against militant Syrian Kurdish targets in northern Syria.
