Ten years after the assassination of three Kurdish activists, demonstrators from all over Europe marched in the capital in memory of the victims.
SourceAFP
© ANDRE ALVES / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
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En January 2013, three Kurdish activists were murdered in the heart of Paris. Since then, every year, a march is organized by the Kurdish community to pay tribute to them. Saturday January 7, 2023, thousands of people from all over Europe marched through the streets of the capital, according to AFP. This march comes a few days after the shock of the assassination, in the center of Paris, of three Kurds by a 69-year-old man. He confessed while in police custody to have acted out of “hate that had become pathological” for foreigners.
Supervised by a very present order service, the procession set off at the end of the morning from the Gare du Nord behind a black banner crossed out with photos of the three militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), shot dead in 2013, and of the slogan “the Turkish state has massacred three Kurds in Paris again”. According to organizers, “at least 25,000 demonstrators” are taking part in the march. According to the Paris police headquarters, they were 10,000 to participate in the march.
“We want justice”
“Nothing can stop the freedom of the Kurds”, “Truth and justice”, “We want justice”, chanted the demonstrators, the first of whom rallied to Republic Square at midday, passing through the places of triple murders of 2013 and 2022. On the night of January 9 to 10, 2013, activists Sakine Cansiz, 54, Fidan Dogan, 28, and Leyla Saylemez, 24, were killed by multiple bullets to the head in the compound of the Kurdistan Information Center (CIK) located in the 10e district of Paris. Their alleged assassin, Omer Güney, was quickly imprisoned, but he died at the end of 2016 in prison, a few weeks before the opening of his trial before an assize court.
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The French justice investigation, which had pointed to the “involvement” of the Turkish intelligence services (MIT) without, however, designating sponsors, is continuing. MIT has officially denied any involvement. The triple murder committed on December 23 aroused the anger of the Kurds of France who, despite the statements of the suspect and the first elements of the investigation delivered by the prosecution, continue to implicate Turkey. Violent incidents marred a gathering of the Kurdish community in Paris on December 24.
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This time the protest went off without a hitch, and people dispersed peacefully. In Marseille, more than 1,200 people, according to an AFP estimate – 800, according to the police headquarters – joined the procession on Saturday which descended the Canebière, a famous artery in the heart of Marseille, towards the Old Port. .
“People from all countries live in the neighborhood where the attack took place, but it is only Kurdish people, in a street with businesses that everyone knows to be Kurdish, who were attacked”, reacted to AFP Fatna, representative of the Kurdish Democratic Center of Montpellier, referring to the triple murder last month.