Four men of Kurdish origin were attacked this Saturday, April 3 at the beginning of the afternoon with an iron bar in an association room in downtown Lyon, during an action that the victims attribute to the ultranationalist group Turkish Gray Wolves.
Read also: For young Franco-Turks, the Erdogan temptation
“
Around 2:30 p.m. there was an intrusion of at least ten people in a Kurdish room in the 7th arrondissement of Lyon.
There is a lot of damage and four minor injuries
, ”said local police.
When the police arrived, the attackers had left the scene.
"
There was a fight between two gangs which caused the transport of four injured in relative urgency to neighboring hospitals
", for their part affirmed the firefighters.
"
The victims, men aged between 30 and 45, were wounded with knives, bats and iron bars
," said the same source.
Threats implemented
In a press release sent to
Le Figaro
, the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F) affirms that
"the gray wolves dressed in balaclavas, (and equipped) with baseball bats and bladed weapons, attacked with the greatest violence our association of Lyon and beaten its members.
Four Kurds in the association were wounded to the point of blood by Erdogan's dangerous thugs ”
.
And to add that
"it is not insignificant that these violent and organized attacks of gray wolves against the Kurdish community in France intervene at the end of the Turkish-French diplomatic rapprochement"
.
The CDK-F calls on the Ministry of the Interior to
"immediately
take
the necessary measures to ensure the security of the member associations of our network in France, as well as those of members of the Kurdish community".
To read also: Mosques, schools, associations… The Franco-Turks under the influence of Ankara
The Gray Wolves, a Turkish ultra-nationalist group known to be close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, were dissolved in November by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin after being singled out during incidents with the Armenian diaspora near Lyon.
The cultural association of Lyon whose members were targeted had already denounced two weeks ago threats and inscriptions attributed to the Gray Wolves on the door of its premises located on the ground floor.
The initials of the Turkish ultranationalist party MHP as well as the letters RTE (for Recep Tayyip Erdogan), had been tagged.
