After a deadly attack on a Kurdish center in Paris: protests across Europe - including in Bavaria

Created: 2022-12-24 06:20

By: Kathrin Reikowski

Paris: shots in a Kurdish cultural center, three people died, there are injured.

A man was arrested who may have shot for racist reasons.

The news ticker.

• Alleged perpetrator

  : 69-year-old train driver is said to have been under judicial supervision.

• Protests

  after the

  attack

  : demonstrators and police clashed not far from the scene of the crime.

• Police arrest

  suspect

  :

  A 69-year-old with racist motives is said to have committed the crime.

• This news ticker about the

  bloody deed in Paris

  with three dead in a Kurdish cultural center is updated regularly.

Update from December 23, 10:52 p.m

.: Laurent Nuñez, the head of the Paris police, wants to meet with representatives of the Kurdish community in Paris on Saturday.

In doing so, he is responding to the demands of the Democratic Kurdish Council in France, CDKF.

A representative had demanded that the possible involvement of the Turkish secret service should not be ignored in the investigative work and had addressed a meeting with the police.

Meanwhile, members of Kurdish communities from Germany also want to make their way to Paris on Saturday night.

Bus departure times from several German cities have been published on social networks.

Paris: US Secretary of State Blinken offers condolences after the fatal shooting

Update from December 23, 9:59 p.m

.: "My heartfelt condolences to the victims of the attack on the Kurdish cultural center in Paris," US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken wrote on Twitter.

"My thoughts are with the members of the Kurdish community and the people of France."

Attack in Paris on December 23, 2022: Anger in the Turkish diaspora over unsolved murders ten years ago

Update from December 23, 9:14 p.m .:

In France, protests broke out in Paris and Marseille in the evening after the deadly shots at people in a Kurdish cultural center.

According to information from Le Monde, nine people were taken into custody.

The anger from parts of the Kurdish diaspora also stems from the fact that three Kurdish activists were killed in the same Parisian arrondissement in January 2013.

On January 9, 2013, three Kurdish activists from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were murdered in the same district.

According to the investigations by the French judiciary, which are still ongoing, members of the Turkish secret service were involved in the crime, but there is no information on the suspected clients.

A representative of the Kurdish community in France also spoke in connection with the attack on Friday of a possible "terrorist attack", behind which Turkey was suspected.

Interior Minister Darmanin also mentioned that the crime happened so close to the tenth anniversary of a triple murder of Kurdish activists.

At a rally in Munich, a speaker said that the Kurdish community would not be intimidated by the murders in Paris.

According to consistent media reports, an activist from the Kurdish women's movement was killed on Friday, as was a Kurdish singer who had applied for asylum in Paris because of persecution in Turkey.

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After the attack in Paris, the Kurdish diaspora protested across Europe

Update from December 23, 8:06 p.m.:

The Kurdish diaspora is well connected across Europe.

After the attack on the headquarters of a Kurdish umbrella organization in Paris, there were calls for protests on social networks in several European cities, including Vienna, Athens, Bern, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin.

In Germany, unlike in France, the protests seem to have remained very peaceful.

The Berlin police spoke to

of a spontaneously announced demonstration at Pariser Platz.

It went peacefully and has already ended.

Pictures of protests are also being shared on social networks, where people seem to be gathering in solidarity with the victims of Paris.

In the individual cases, however, it cannot be clarified whether the protests came from tonight.

Attack in Paris: Olaf Scholz (SPD) addresses words to the bereaved

Update from December 23, 7.50 p.m

.: The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) also spoke up after the attack on a Kurdish cultural center in Paris and expressed his sympathy.

"A terrible act that shook Paris and France today," tweeted the SPD politician on Friday evening in German and French.

"My thoughts are with the victims and their families."

Update from December 23, 7:29 p.m .:

The suspect in the Paris attack on a Kurdish center attacked a migrant camp last year – with a saber, as the newspaper “Le Parisien” reported.

The man injured several people there.

The broadcaster France Info reported, citing police circles, that the man was known for two attempted killings.

As the ARD reports, a debate has broken out on social media in France as to whether right-wing political parties in France are fueling such cases of violence.

Paris attack December 23, 2022: Fatal shots hit the umbrella organization of Kurdish associations

Update from December 23, 7:13 p.m

.: The deadly shots in and in front of a Kurdish cultural center in Paris hit the branch of the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F).

This is an umbrella organization of 24 Kurdish associations.

As the CDK-F announced on Friday, the three fatalities were Kurdish activists, as were three injured people.

France now wants to protect Kurdish meeting places.

Throughout the country, guards should be posted at gathering places of the Kurdish community, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Friday.

Turkish diplomatic missions in the country should also be protected to prevent counterattacks.

Paris: Public prosecutor's office announces details about the perpetrator - he was probably under judicial supervision

Update from December 23, 6:54 p.m

.: The Paris public prosecutor’s office announced on Friday evening that it was still too early to describe the arrested 69-year-old as belonging to an extremist ideological movement.

This writes

.

The man was sentenced to six months in prison in 2017 for a crime of racist motives.

Apparently, according to the press release, the man had only been released from custody a few days ago for a "crime with intent and of a racist nature and damage to property" and was under judicial supervision.

He was also forbidden to own weapons.

According to ARD information, the man attacked a refugee camp in December 2021.

Paris: Macron and Baerbock express themselves on Twitter after the death of three Kurds in Paris

Update from December 23, 6:32 p.m

.: French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted after the attack on a Kurdish cultural center: “The Kurds of France were the target of a heinous attack in the heart of Paris.

Thoughts of the victims, of the people fighting for their lives, of their families and loved ones.

Credit to our law enforcement for their courage and composure.”

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) briefly wrote on Twitter: "Hate must never win." #Paris

Paris: Call for Europe-wide protests after the attack on the Kurdish cultural center in Paris

Update from December 23, 6:19 p.m

.: After the death of three “Kurdish activists” (a woman and two men, as

writes), protests are being called across Europe.

From 5 p.m., activists and sympathizers wanted to take to the streets in Berlin, Bern, Dresden and Hamburg, among other places.

According to information from the Federal Agency for Civic Education, there were around one and a half million people of Kurdish descent in 2017.

The number is likely to have increased since then due to wars and political unrest in countries of origin such as Syria, Iraq or Turkey.

They have different nationalities and define themselves in part through their language and ethnicity.

Political activists, especially from Turkey, are campaigning against state oppression of Kurds in Turkey and other countries of origin, with protests mostly of a peaceful nature. Germany is considered a hub for Kurdish activism.

Paris: After the attack on a Kurdish cultural center, there are sometimes violent protests

Update from December 23, 5:52 p.m .:

After the allegedly racist attack on a Kurdish cultural center in Paris, there were demonstrations in the French capital.

Kevin Vacher, a political scientist and political activist, tweeted that the protesters were said to have been violently prevented from participating in a peaceful protest march by police.

A member of the Kurdish community waves a Kurdish communist flag while standing in front of a burning barricade.

An attacker fatally injured three people when shots were fired in a Kurdish cultural center and in shops.

Three other people suffered injuries.

© picture alliance/dpa/AP |

Lewis Joly

According to Paris newspaper Le Monde, the protests escalated after French Interior Minister Darmanin spoke to the press nearby.

Accordingly, stones were thrown at the law enforcement officers, at least eleven police officers are said to have been injured.

The cultural center is located on Rue du Faubourg Saint Dénis.

In Germany, too, there were calls for demonstrations on the social network Twitter.

Shots in Paris: French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin at the scene

Update from December 23, 5:45 p.m .:

A xenophobic multiple murder shook Paris the day before Christmas Eve.

A Frenchman previously accused of racist violence shot dead three people and injured three others near a Kurdish center.

One of them is in mortal danger, the public prosecutor said on Friday.

According to statements by France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin at the scene of the crime, the perpetrator "obviously wanted to attack foreigners".

Darmanin mentioned that the act happened so close to the tenth anniversary of a triple murder of Kurdish activists.

However, he emphasized that the exact motive of the individual perpetrator was not known.

It is also still open whether the man has connections to the ultra-right scene.

According to information from the public prosecutor's office, the alleged perpetrator is a 69-year-old Frenchman, a former train driver.

He is said to have injured two migrants with a saber and cut up tents in Paris about a year ago.

He was therefore in custody, from which he had only been released eleven days ago.

He is not on the domestic secret service's list of threats.

According to a Kurdish association in France, the dead are Kurdish activists, including a young woman and a musician, reports AFP.

Update from December 23, 4:28 p.m .:

After the shots in Paris at a Kurdish center, French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne expressed her support on Twitter to the victims’ relatives.

She called the act "disgusting".

France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin also wrote that all his thoughts are with the victims' families.

Darmanin is scheduled to arrive at the crime scene later this afternoon.

Update from December 23, 3:34 p.m .:

The bloody deed in Paris with deaths and injuries bears the handwriting of a right-wing extremist for the mayor.

"The Kurdish community, and through it all Parisians, have been targeted by these killings, committed by a far-right activist," Anne Hidalgo wrote on Twitter.

Emergency services seal off the crime scene after the shots in Paris.

© IMAGO / PanoramiC

“The Kurds, wherever they live, must be able to live in peace and security.

More than ever, Paris stands by her in these dark hours," she wrote.

According to district mayor Alexandra Cordebard, the arrested man opened fire in a Kurdish community center and a restaurant and hairdressing salon across the street.

Shots in Paris: the suspect is said to have been known to the police

Update from December 23, 2:40 p.m .:

As the broadcaster

reports, citing police circles, the suspect is known for two attempted killings.

The newspaper

writes that the Frenchman attacked a migrant camp with a saber last year and injured several people there.

The man only got out of prison in mid-December and was under judicial supervision.

Update from December 23, 2:20 p.m .:

Another person died in the shots in the French capital Paris.

The Paris public prosecutor confirmed a third fatality.

The suspect is a 69-year-old Frenchman who was known to the police because of two previous murder attempts, police sources said.

He was known to police for two attempted murders.

About a year ago, he is said to have injured at least two migrants with a knife in Paris and destroyed several migrant tents, the prosecutor said.

It was determined, among other things, because of a racist motive.

After the bloody deed: firefighters bring a stretcher for the victims to the crime scene.

© Lewis Joly/AP/dpa

He is not on the secret service's list of endangered persons.

According to District Mayor Alexandra Cordebard, the man was taken to a hospital with injuries.

Three dead in Paris: investigations into murder and serious violence

The public prosecutor's office is investigating for murder and serious violence.

The judicial police is initially responsible, not the terror prosecutor's office.

"I saw two police officers go into a hairdressing salon where two people were lying on the ground, their legs were injured," said a local resident.

"There were seven or eight shots, there is panic," said an eyewitness to the

news agency .

"We saw an old white man who went to the Kurdish center and fired there," said Romain, a chef at a nearby restaurant.

The man then went to a neighboring hairdressing salon.

"We got ourselves to safety with the staff in the restaurant," he added.

The Berlin-based Kurdish Center for Public Relations, which claims to be in contact with the Paris Kurdish center near which the bloody crime occurred, said that Paris was assuming a "targeted attack on the Kurdish community".

Bloody deed in Paris: Police and emergency services secure the crime scene.

© Thomas Samson/AFP

Bloody deed in Paris: 69-year-old arrested as a suspect

Update from December 23, 1:10 p.m .:

The age of the arrested suspect is now given as 69 years.

Emmanuel Grégoire, who works for the Paris mayor, thanked the security forces for their quick action.

His thoughts are with the victims and witnesses of the attack.

The district mayor wanted to go to the scene of the incident.

First report from December 23

-

Paris - Several people were injured by gunshots in central Paris.

A man in his 60s was arrested, police sources said on Friday.

"There were seven or eight shots, there is panic," said an eyewitness to the

news agency .

The police called for people to avoid the area around Rue d'Enghien in the 10th arrondissement.

However, there is no longer any danger.

Shots in Paris: Prosecutors report two fatalities

As the

news agency further reports, citing the public prosecutor's office, there are at least two fatalities and four people injured.

Two of them are said to be in mortal danger.

It is a small street with many restaurants, not far from the Grande Boulevards with their famous department stores.

The fire brigade and rescue workers were on duty.

France is always in the headlines for bloody deeds.

In October 2020, for example, a woman was beheaded with a knife in a church in Nice.

The perpetrators had acted out of Islamist motives.