Thousands of Kurds demonstrated on Saturday Place de la République, in Paris, denouncing an attack on political mobiles. The main suspect motivated his gesture by racism before being transferred to psychiatry.
by Christophe Ayad
Under the gray sky of Paris, a sea of red, yellow and green flags in the colors of Kurdistan. Thousands of kurds and sympathizers of their cause paid tribute on Saturday 24 December to the three members of the community murdered on Friday in Paris, rue d’Enghien, gathering on Place de la République.
The demonstration was called by the Kurdish Democratic Center of France (CDKF), whose headquarters are at the Kurdish Cultural Center Ahmet-Kaya, targeted by the alleged perpetrator, William M., 69 years old. His police custody was lifted on Saturday for medical reasons. The man was transferred to psychiatric care while waiting to be presented to a judge.
Some of the demonstrators had come with the printed portraits of the two best known victims, feminist activist Emine Kara and singer Mir Perwer. The third victim, Abdulrahman Kizil, is an “ordinary Kurdish citizen”, according to the CDKF, used to frequenting the Ahmet-Kaya center. But if a face dominated the demonstration, it was that of Abdullah Öcalan, the chief and founder of the PKK, imprisoned in Turkey. The Kurdistan workers’ party, at war with the Turkish state and whose CDKF is an emanation, wanted to make the demonstration a moment of meditation as much as a demonstration of force at the heart of France and the European Union , which always classify it as a terrorist organization.
Despite these political issues, emotion is there. Many demonstrators refuse to express themselves, as if the assassinations were a personal affront impossible to verbalize. The Kurdish community has never been targeted by the extreme right “racism”, the motivation put forward by the alleged killer during his police custody. The demonstrators, they see only the pursuit of a repression which strikes the Kurds in their countries of origin as in their exile. Number of flags recalled the memory of the three activists murdered almost ten years ago, on January 9, 2013 rue Lafayette, by an alleged Turkish state agent who could never be tried before died in detention.
Mistrust and paranoia in the youngest
Rukan Teker, a young student in the first year of law, came with a friend. She brandishes the portrait of singer Mir Perwer, Sirin Aydin his real name, murdered the day before by William M. who pursued him even in a Kurdish restaurant to complete him: “What happened is horrible. Insecure sense. I am courses at the Kurdish Cultural Institute and that could have happened to me very well. We, the Kurds, we do not feel protected. Already that we are refused a state, that we must all Time to explain who we are, we feel completely delegitimized. Look how the police treat us! “
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