a peaceful white march in the 10th arrondissement

Demonstrators hold portraits of the victims of the rue d’Enghien shootings on December 23, 2022, and those of the victims of the rue La Fayette murders in 2013, as they take part in a march to pay tribute to them and in solidarity with the Kurdish community. In Paris, on December 26, 2022. JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP

Flowers and portraits of the victims were placed on the sidewalk in front of the Kurdish cultural center, located at 16 rue d’Enghien, in Paris, on Monday, December 26. A little before noon, the first demonstrators arrive, greet each other and hug. Then, the procession rushes towards 147 rue La Fayette, in the same 10^e district, where three Kurdish activists from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were killed on January 9, 2013. Protesters chant in Kurdish and French “Woman-Life-Freedom” and claim « justice ».

Youssouf (no demonstrator wished to give their name), 38-year-old Kurd, came with his 3-year-old son. He speaks with difficulty as the emotion is great. “I don’t want him to feel insecure,” he explains. He remembers the “terrible” murders ten years ago. “I was already on the streets, in 2013… I didn’t think it could happen again, not here. I’m scared for my son.” he confides.

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“We are threatened with death, insists Agit Polat, spokesperson for the Kurdish Democratic Council in France. We live and work in France, in a democracy, in a rule of law, yet we Kurds are not taken into consideration, we are not protected. Once again, we are touched in the heart, he complains. Three of our friends were executed. We know this is a terrorist act, not a racist one. Terrorist. We will continue to fight and claim the truth. »

In tight rows, the demonstrators join the rue La Fayette, their flags kurds fly in the wind as the rain gets heavier and heavier. All are determined to defend their ” identify “. Redin, a 54-year-old Kurd, demonstrates with friends. “I feel like someone without a country, without an identity, like a foreigner attacked from everywhere”, he recalls, very moved.

“I wanted to give my support”

A few young people also gathered. Ali, 26, is also accompanied by three friends. “The youth are perhaps even angrier than the oldest, we grew up in France lulled by the memory of the triple assassination of 2013he says. Ten years later, nothing has changed. Things are not progressing. We just want to live our life like the others. »

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A few non-Kurdish demonstrators are there too, like Josiane, in her sixties, a resident of 19^e arrondissement : “I have come so that this event does not fall into oblivion and that it is not treated as a ‘simple’ news item. » “I wanted to support the Kurdish community, it takes me to the guts”abounds Aline, 66, born in the 10^e arrondissement.

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