Turkey enters the dance. Ankara has announced that it is protesting against what it perceives as “anti-Turkey propaganda” in France, since the murder of three Kurds on Friday in Paris, according to a Turkish diplomatic source. The French ambassador to Turkey was even summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Monday.
“We have expressed our dissatisfaction with the propaganda launched against our country by PKK circles”, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, criticized this source, announcing the summons of Ambassador Hervé Magro.
An armed man, with unclear motives, opened fire on Friday at the premises of the Kurdish Democratic Council in France, located rue d’Enghien in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, killing three people.
Ankara notably criticizes Paris for having let supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) demonstrate in the streets of Paris following the tragedy on Saturday, some of their placards evoking links between Turkey and the French murderer.
VIDEO. “For us, it’s an attack”: a march for the victims of the December 23 killings
The Kurdish diaspora in France still remembers the assassination of three militants of the PKK (an organization considered terrorist by Turkey and the EU) in January 2013 in Paris, by a man probably linked to the Turkish secret services.
“Erdogan’s fascist regime has struck again,” hammered Monday into the megaphone Agit Polat, the young president of the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F) during a march organized in Paris in memory of the victims.
According to Ankara, these accusations were taken up “by representatives of the French government and politicians”. “The French government and some politicians have been used as instruments of propaganda. “The assassination of the Kurds on December 23 is not a news item (…). It is a serious political fact of internal and external security ”, in particular declared this Monday the leader of the Insoumis, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, asking for referral to the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office.
A special adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday condemned the violence in Paris after the attack, incriminating the PKK. “The same PKK that has killed thousands of Turks, Kurds and security forces over the past 40 years. Now they are burning the streets of Paris. Will you always keep silent? “, he said.
In the aftermath of the drama on Friday in Paris, demonstrations in tribute to the victims were punctuated by violence this weekend. The suspect, a French retiree, claimed to have acted out of “pathological hatred” of foreigners. He was indicted for murders and attempted murders because of race, ethnicity, nation or religion but also for acquisition and possession of a category B weapon.