The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Anger and pain among the Kurdish community in Paris a week after the shooting with three dead: "We condemn this fascist attack"

2022-12-30T05:10:50.076Z


Friends, family and members of the community come daily to the Ahmet Kaya Cultural Center to remember them.


The Ahmet Kaya Kurdish cultural center in Paris is a place of mourning these days.

Its doors remain open both day and night so that friends, relatives, neighbors or members of the community can honor the three victims of the xenophobic attack that shook the French capital last Friday.

That day, a 69-year-old French retiree, identified by the local press as William M., allegedly shot Kurds Emine Kara, Mir Perwer and Abdurrahman Kizil when they were just outside the center before wounding three other people in a hairdressing salon. A few meters.

Since then, hundreds of people come daily to the place to remember them.

Two people dressed in a red vest observed this Thursday who entered and left the cultural center, located at number 16 rue d'Enghien.

A police van also guards the area, where small altars with flowers and candles have been erected in memory of the victims.

His photographs are present in most shops, cafes and restaurants along with a black tie.

“We are in mourning.

We strongly condemn this fascist terrorist attack," read the banners.

The neighborhood where the killings took place is known as "little Istanbul" and has a significant Turkish-Kurdish exile population.

In front of the cultural center, named after a Kurdish singer who died in Paris in 2010, several groups of people talk and greet each other.

A man goes up the stairs that lead to the entrance, lights a candle and observes the altars placed on both sides of the door.

On the left, on a table covered by a red cloth, is the portrait of Abdurrahman Kizil, the 59-year-old retiree who used to attend the association "daily" and had dedicated his life to the Kurdish struggle, according to the Kurdish Democratic Council of France (CDK-F).

On the right, the image of Emine Kara, 48 years old.

She was responsible for the Kurdish women's movement in France and had fought the Islamic State jihadist group in Rojava, Syrian Kurdistan.

“She was a light for Kurdish women.

She gave off a lot of energy, ”explains Sengul, 43, who prefers not to give her last name.

Also known under her

nom de guerre

Evin Goyi, Kara had arrived in France two years ago to request asylum.

But the authorities refused to grant him her status.

The third victim, the 29-year-old musician Mir Perwer, had indeed received refugee status in France for being persecuted in Turkey for the lyrics of his songs, which he sang in Kurdish, Berivan Firat, one of the spokespersons, told the media. of the CDK-F.

On one of the outer walls of the center also hung his portrait.

The CDK-F, which brings together 24 exile associations, is based in the cultural center, founded in 2021 with the aim of promoting Kurdish culture and informing society about the Kurdish question.

The council is known to be close to the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is at war with the Turkish state and considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

“We are here for our people”

In the cultural center, the tributes follow one another.

The candles remain lit and new bouquets of flowers always arrive.

In the first room on the left, about 20 people are sitting in front of a television, which broadcasts news in Kurdish continuously.

Some drink a cup of tea, which is distributed free of charge as part of the vigil for the deceased.

Others talk among themselves and look askance at the images that appear on the screen.

“We are here for our people,” explains Delil Kara, a 27-year-old.

He comes every day, he adds, especially since his aunt is part of the Kurdish women's movement.

“In 2013 the same thing happened and we didn't know who was behind” the murders, he recalls.

Friday's attack occurred a few days before the tenth anniversary of the shooting death on January 9, 2013 of three Kurdish militants — one of them closely linked to Abdullah Ocalan, the now jailed PKK leader and founder — in the same neighborhood. from Paris.

The French authorities never resolved the case.

For a week now, the Ahmet Kaya center has been receiving letters by post from all over Europe and messages of solidarity on the telephone answering machine.

In the second room, the largest, are the main altars.

The first is dedicated to the three victims of Friday.

The other is reminiscent of those murdered in 2013.

On one of the walls are the portraits of the leaders and intellectuals of Kurdistan, a region divided between Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Among them is Abdullah Ocalan and next to him, a golden plaque summarizing the history of the PKK.

The people in charge of the center placed chairs for the tributes.

In front, they set up a large table where some relatives of the victims are sitting, receiving their condolences.

It is not yet known when the funerals will be.

But until then, the vigil will continue.

It is important —insists Sengul, the 43-year-old woman— because it allows us to "be together, show our anger, denounce and say that we are present."

“The community is still in shock,” she stresses.

"I hate foreigners"

The main suspect in Friday's attack is a 69-year-old retired railway conductor, who was a member of a shooting club and who had already been convicted of other violent acts against immigrants.

During his arrest, he acknowledged that he felt a "hatred of foreigners that became completely pathological," according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

Before firing on the Kurdish center, he planned to go to Saint Denis, a northern suburb of the capital with a large migrant population, to "kill foreign people", according to the same source.

But in the end he backed down because there were few people and he couldn't reload his weapon, according to what he said.

The suspect was charged with murder and attempted murder based on race, ethnicity, nationality or religion, as well as acquiring and carrying weapons without authorization, according to the Prosecutor's Office.

The defendant, who described himself as "depressive" and "suicidal", was transferred on Saturday to a police psychiatric unit.

Follow all the international information on

Facebook

and

Twitter

, or in

our weekly newsletter

.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-12-30

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-15T01:09:22.299Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.