Clashes broke out between demonstrators and the police on the sidelines of the demonstration which brought together several thousand people in Paris on Saturday to pay tribute to the three Kurds killed and the three other people injured the day before near a Kurdish cultural center in the capital city.
Around 1 p.m., an hour after the start of the rally in Place de la République, clashes began on Boulevard du Temple, a hundred meters away, AFP journalists noted. At least four cars were overturned, including at least one set on fire, and garbage cans burned.
A few dozen demonstrators threw projectiles at the police who responded with tear gas. “Long live the resistance of the Kurdish people”shouted several of them.
The procession, originally several thousand people strong, split in two because of these tensions and only a few hundred demonstrators managed to reach the Place de la Bastille shortly after 2 p.m., the arrival point of the procession.
In the crowd, many demonstrators waved flags of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) or the effigy of three Kurdish activists murdered in January 2013 in Paris.
Kurdish activists and political refugees: who are the three victims of the massacre in Paris?
moment of silence
“What we feel is pain and incomprehension because it’s not the first time it’s happened”told AFP Esra, a 23-year-old student who did not wish to give her surname, her eyes red with tears.
A minute of silence was observed, in music, in memory of the victims and “all Kurds who died for freedom”. Several demonstrators denounced to AFP a “unfair” and an act “terrorist” and ” Politics “.
The suspect, of French nationality and aged 69, who had already committed violence with a weapon in the past, indicated during his arrest that he acted because he was “racist”.
Deadly shootings in Paris: the suspect said he acted because he was “racist”
Received by the prefect of police of Paris
A little earlier in the morning, representatives of the Kurdish community had been received by the Paris police chief, Laurent Nunez.
“There is no doubt for us that these are political assassinations. The fact that our associations are targeted is of a terrorist and political nature”said after the meeting Agit Polat, spokesperson for the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDKF), who regretted a “safety lacking”.
Several hundred people also gathered on Saturday afternoon in the center of Marseilles at the call of the association for the defense of the rights of the Kurds Solidarity and Freedom.
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The suspect, whose police custody was extended on Saturday, is suspected of having opened fire on Friday rue d’Enghien in Paris, in the 10th arrondissement, killing three Kurds and injuring three others near a Kurdish cultural center .
In the minutes following the attack, the Kurds of France spoke of an act “terrorist” and implicated Turkey.
