The suspected attacker was wounded and detained, and transferred Saturday to psychiatric care, the Paris prosecutor’s workplace mentioned. The 69-year-old Parisian had been charged with attacking a migrant camp final yr and launched from jail earlier this month. For Friday’s taking pictures, he’s dealing with potential fees of homicide and tried homicide with a racist motive, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned.
Hundreds gathered Saturday on the Place de la Republique in japanese Paris, waving a colourful spectrum of flags representing Kurdish rights teams, left-wing political actions and different causes.
The gathering was largely peaceable, although some youths threw projectiles and set a number of automobiles and rubbish bins on fireplace, and police fired tear fuel to disperse the gang. Some protesters shouted slogans in opposition to the Turkish authorities. Berivan Firat of the Kurdish Democratic Council in France informed BFM TV that the violence started after some folks drove by waving a Turkish flag.
Most demonstrators had been ethnic Kurds of various generations who got here collectively to mourn the three fellow Kurds who had been killed, who included a outstanding feminist activist and a Kurdish singer who got here to France as a refugee.
”We’re devastated, actually. We’re destroyed as a result of we misplaced a vital member of our group and we’re indignant. How is that this attainable?” mentioned demonstrator Yekbun Ogur, a center faculty biology instructor in Paris. “Is it regular for a person with a gun to sneak right into a cultural place to return and homicide folks?”
Demonstrator Yunus Cicek wiped his tears away as spoke of the victims, and his fears. “We’re not protected right here. Regardless that I’ve political refugee standing, I don’t really feel secure. … Possibly subsequent time will probably be me.”
The taking pictures shook the Kurdish group and put French police on additional alert for the Christmas weekend. The Paris police chief met Saturday with members of the Kurdish group to attempt to allay their fears.
France’s Inside Ministry reported a 13% rise in race-related crimes or different violations in 2021 over 2019, after an 11% rise from 2018 to 2019. The ministry didn’t embody 2020 in its statistics due to successive pandemic lockdowns that yr. It mentioned a disproportionate variety of such crimes goal folks of African descent, and likewise cited lots of of assaults based mostly on faith.
Friday’s assault occurred on the cultural heart and a close-by Kurdish restaurant and Kurdish hair salon. Surveillance video from the hair salon shared on-line suggests folks within the salon subdued the attacker earlier than police reached the scene. The prosecutor’s workplace wouldn’t elaborate on the circumstances of his arrest.
Inside Minister Gerald Darmanin mentioned the suspect was clearly focusing on foreigners, and had acted alone and was not formally affiliated with any extreme-right or different radical actions. The suspect had previous convictions for unlawful arms possession and armed violence.
Kurdish activists mentioned that they had lately been warned by police of threats to Kurdish targets.
In 2013, three girls Kurdish activists, together with Sakine Cansiz, a founding father of the Kurdistan Staff’ Social gathering, or PKK, had been discovered shot useless at a Kurdish heart in Paris.
Turkey’s military has lengthy been battling in opposition to Kurdish militants affiliated with the banned PKK in southeast Turkey in addition to in northern Iraq. Turkey’s army additionally lately launched a sequence of air and artillery strikes in opposition to Syrian Kurdish militant targets in northern Syria.
Boubkar Benzebat in Paris contributed.
