Several thousand people from all over Europe marched this Saturday, January 7 in Paris in tribute to three Kurdish activists murdered almost ten years ago to the day in the capital, AFP journalists noted.
This annual march, which has brought together the Kurdish community since 2013, comes a few days after the shock of the assassination, in the center of Paris, of three Kurds by a 69-year-old man, who confessed while in police custody to have acted by “hate that has become pathological” strangers.
Crimes of the rue d’Enghien: “When the victims are not French, the attacks are often not perceived as racist”
Supervised by a very present order service, the procession set off at the end of the morning from the Gare du Nord behind a black banner crossed out with photos of the three militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) killed in 2013 and the slogan “The Turkish state has massacred 3 Kurds in Paris again”. According to the organizers, “at least 25,000 protesters” participate in the march.
“We want justice”
“Nothing can stop the freedom of the Kurds”, “Truth and Justice”, “We want justice”chanted the demonstrators, the first of whom rallied to Place de la République at midday, passing through the sites of the triple murders of 2013 and 2022.
During the first, on the night of January 9 to 10, 2013, activists Sakine Cansiz, 54, Fidan Dogan, 28, and Leyla Saylemez, 24, were killed by multiple bullets to the head inside the Center Kurdistan Information Center (CIK), in Paris.
Their presumed assassin, Omer Güney, was quickly imprisoned but he died at the end of 2016 in prison, a few weeks before the opening of his trial.
“France has a debt of justice”
“It is here in Paris that my sister and her friends were killed. France owes us a debt of justice.Metin Cansiz, brother of one of the Kurdish activists murdered in January 2013, told AFP. , “sacrificed”according to him, on the altar of France/Turkey relations.
While residing in the Netherlands, Metin Cansiz came to Paris especially for the tribute ceremonies this week, as every year for ten years. “But this year, we feel this responsibility and this pain even more”he says in Kurdish, an interpreter at his side.
On December 23, three other people – Abdurrahman Kizil, Mir Perwer, a Kurdish singer and political refugee and Emine Kara, head of the Kurdish Women’s Movement in France, who fought against the Islamic State in Syria – were indeed assassinated, in the same district of the capital. The alleged perpetrator of this attack, a Frenchman, said he acted because he was “racist”. A majority of the Kurds met by AFP do not believe this version, denounce a “terrorist” act and blame Turkey.
Came to Paris on December 20 for a meeting with the two other families at an examining magistrate, Metin Cansiz had gone to the cultural center on December 21, where Emine Kara was preparing the ceremonies of homage to the three activists.
“She insisted that I should not go alone to catch my train; I told her it would be fine and that she take care of herself; that’s how we broke up that day. And two days later…”
2023, the year of all dangers for Turkish President Erdogan
Lifting of defense secrecy?
The families of the three Kurdish activists killed in 2013 and the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F) urge this year with even more ” determination “ the French authorities to lift the defense secret concerning these assassinations. The CDK-F calls for the declassification of “information held by the various French intelligence services”. The CDK-F has for years accused the Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of being behind the assassination, perpetrated, according to the CDK-F, by an MIT agent.
The investigation of the French justice, which had pointed “involvement” of the Turkish intelligence services (MIT) without, however, naming sponsors, continues. MIT has officially denied any involvement.
Turkish media had however broadcast a document presented as a “mission order” from MIT for Omer Güney.
White march in Paris for Kurdish activists killed in 2013: who are the Kurds?“Why if France has nothing to reproach itself for in this affair, it does not lift this secret defence? », Notes Metin Cansiz.
“My sister lived here, she was under the protection of France; these three women were murdered here, it is a security failure from France”, he hammers again. According to him, “this case and the demand for justice are sacrificed so as not to harm relations between France and Turkey”.
“We have not done our mourning… Our mourning will only be done once the sponsors will be judged, once justice will be rendered”.
