“The Kurdish people have been going through a nightmare for more than 40 years,” said Firatei, a Frenchman of Kurdish origin, as he left the ceremony paying tribute to the three people murdered in the heart of Paris on December 23.
Wrapped in the flags of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Rojava, Kurdish territory of Syria, the coffins of the three deceased were greeted by a guard of honor, tears and cries.
“We are upset because we are not free, we are not protected”, explains Lauri, a young woman attending the funeral.
After many political speeches, the community paid a last tribute to Abdurrahman Kizil, Mir Perwer, a Kurdish political refugee singer, and Emine Kara, leader of the Kurdish Women's Movement in France.
Thousands of anonymous people marched for almost an hour in front of the coffins to lay a rose there, under a portrait of Abdullah Öcalan, the historic leader of the PKK imprisoned in Turkey.
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For many Kurds, chance is not possible in this case.
Refusing to believe the version of a sniper with racist motivations, they denounce a “terrorist” act and implicate Turkey.
The community's suspicions are all the more acute since ten years ago, almost to the day, three Kurdish activists were murdered in the same 10th arrondissement of Paris, by a Turkish national suspected of having acted on behalf of Ankara intelligence services.
The latter died of cancer in 2016 in detention, before his trial.
These funerals were attended by a dense crowd, around 10,000 people throughout the day, according to a police source.