Monitoring Desk
PARIS: Kurdish groups from across France and Europe are marching in Paris on Saturday to show their anger over the unresolved killing of three Kurdish women activists in Paris, the capital city of France, ten years ago.
The protesters also mourn three people killed outside a Kurdish cultural centre in the French capital two weeks ago in what prosecutors termed a racist attack.
Escorted by police, nearly a dozen buses from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland carried Kurdish activists to the beginning of the march near the Gare du Nord train station north of Paris. The demonstration is timed to mark the 10th anniversary of the killings of Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Saylemez on January 9, 2013.
Sakine Cansiz was a founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK, which Turkiye, the US and the European Union consider a terrorist organization.
Kurds in Europe express anger over Paris killings
Kurdish activists alleged that the Turkish intelligence service was behind the killing. The alleged attacker, a Turkish citizen, died in French custody before the case reached trial. Turkish officials suggested that the killings may have been part of an internal feud among Kurdish activists or an attempt to derail peace talks.
Paris police were on alert Saturday after fighting at Kurdish gatherings in the past, prominently in response to last month’s killing.
After the December 23 attack, the suspected attacker told investigators he had a “pathological” hatred for non-European foreigners, prosecutors said. He was handed initial charges of racially motivated murder, though Kurdish activists suspect the attack was politically driven.
Turkiye summoned France’s ambassador last week over what it called propaganda by Kurdish activists in France after the shooting. Some have marched in Paris with flags of the PKK, which is banned in Turkiye.
The PKK has launched a separatist insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. Turkiye’s army has battled Kurdish militants affiliated with the PKK in southeast Turkiye and northern Iraq and recently launched a series of strikes against Kurdish militant targets north of Syria.
