Under the gray sky of Paris, a sea of red, yellow and green flags in the colors of Kurdistan. Thousands of Kurds and supporters of their cause paid tribute, Saturday, December 24, to the three members of the community murdered on Friday in Paris, rue d’Enghien, by gathering on the 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 of the killing, William M., 69 years old. His police custody was lifted on Saturday for medical reasons. The man was transferred to psychiatric care pending appearance before a judge.
Some of the protesters had come with the printed portraits of the two most famous victims, feminist activist Emine Kara and singer Mir Perwer. The third victim, Abdulrahman Kizil, is a “an ordinary Kurdish citizen”, according to the CDKF, accustomed to frequenting the Ahmet-Kaya center. But if one face dominated the demonstration, it was that of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader and founder of the PKK, imprisoned in Turkey. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, at war with the Turkish state and of which the CDKF is an offshoot, wanted to make the demonstration a moment of meditation as much as a show of force in the heart of France and the European Union. , which still classifies it as a terrorist organization.
Despite these political stakes, the emotion is there. Many demonstrators refuse to speak out, as if the killings were a personal affront impossible to verbalize. The Kurdish community has never been targeted by the ” racism “ extreme right, the motivation put forward by the alleged killer during his custody. The demonstrators see it only as the continuation of a repression which strikes the Kurds in their countries of origin as well as in their exile. Many flags recalled the memory of the three activists murdered almost ten years ago, on January 9, 2013 on rue Lafayette, by an alleged agent of the Turkish state who could never be tried before dying in detention.
Distrust and paranoia among the youngest
Rukan Teker, a young first-year law student, came with a friend. She brandishes the portrait of the singer Mir Perwer, Sirin Aydin of his real name, assassinated the day before by William M. who pursued him to a Kurdish restaurant to finish him off: “What happened is horrible. I feel insecure. I am taking courses at the Kurdish Cultural Institute and this could very well have happened to me. We Kurds do not feel protected. Already that we are denied a State, that we must always explain who we are, we feel completely delegitimized. Look how the police treat us! »
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