“The assassination of the Kurds on December 23 is not a news item (…). It is a serious political fact of internal and external security”, insists Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Three days after the death of three people shot dead in front of a Kurdish cultural center in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, a shooting whose alleged perpetrator, a 69-year-old man, explained that he had done so because he was “racist”, the former presidential candidate persists in not wanting to see it as a simple “chance”.
Barely hours after the killing, without waiting for the first elements of the investigation, he had already spoken of a “terrorist attack”. In a blog note published on Monday, December 26, explaining that he felt “an impression of extreme unease”, he demanded that the anti-terrorist prosecution be seized, thus joining the request made by the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F), which federates the associations of the Kurdish diaspora.
“We do not believe that the assassin went by chance to the place and time of a meeting of Kurdish women to prepare the commemoration of the assassination ten years ago of the three Kurdish leaders”, explains the leader Rebellious, stressing that the triple murder of 2013 has never been elucidated and remains, according to him, under the seal of “secret-defense”.
“One of the long-term identity battles” of the Insoumis
“Why this secret defense? Obviously, we cannot envisage anything without thinking of Turkey”, continues the triple presidential candidate, in reference to the policy of repression carried out by the regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who considers in particular the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) as a terrorist organization.
“The Kurdish cause is ours”, already launched Jean-Luc Mélenchon in January 2019, denouncing the Turkish offensive against the Kurds. Today, whoever recognizes that this cause has become “one of the long-term identity battles of (at) political family”, clearly expresses his doubts about the profile of the killer, even if once again he has no information.
“That he is psychologically disturbed is certainly not surprising. (…) But that only makes everything that followed from his release to his clandestine arming in twelve days more curious,” writes the Insoumis. The suspect in the attack that killed three Kurds was released and placed under judicial supervision on December 12 after a year in pre-trial detention for acts of violence with weapons dating back to December 2021.
“A deep mistake”
For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, it therefore seems “debatable” that the anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office did not take up the case, the Paris prosecutor’s office having opened an investigation for assassination, attempted assassination, intentional violence with weapons and violation of the legislation on weapons entrusted to the PJ.
“By declaring that the Kurdish community was targeted, the President of the Republic placed the event in a very specific context. It would be abnormal not to take any account of it, he insists. The pity would be that the thesis of the racist madman killing at random from his whims does not seem to be a good way to avoid diplomatic or other problems. Either way, that would be a profound mistake. To suggest that it is possible to kill political opponents without any problem could turn out very badly. »