Kurdish cultural movement pays tribute to the victims of Paris attack, calling for resistance

Kurdish artists react with horror and anger to the attack in Paris. The women's cultural movement Kevana Zêrîn remembers the murdered musician Mîr Perwer and calls for resistance.

The women's cultural movement Kevana Zêrîn calls for resistance after the attack in the Ahmet Kaya Cultural Centre which left three dead and three injured in Paris. In the massacre on Friday at noon, long-time revolutionary Evîn Goyî (Emine Kara), musician Mîr Perwer (M. Şirin Aydın) and patriot Abdurrahman Kızıl were shot dead.

Kevana Zêrîn released a statement after the attack pointing out that the cultural and physical campaign of destruction against the Kurdish people has now long gone beyond Kurdistan. "For us, the perpetrators are certain: these murders were carried out after ten years at the same place and with the same method. The AKP/MHP, as a mafia-like Gladio organization, wants to delay its inevitable end and intensifies its dirty attacks against Kurds. However, with these attacks, it is accelerating its collapse. It is certainly no coincidence that the latest attack in Paris was carried out ten years after the 9 January 2013 murder of three Kurdish women revolutionaries. The attacks on Kurds who seek asylum in Europe due to persecution by the fascist AKP/MHP regime are taking place through middlemen," stated the Kurdish Women's Cultural Movement.

The statement continued, “The fascism of the Turkish state knows no borders and is trying to wipe out Kurdish resistance and especially rebellious women all over the world. As the women's cultural movement Kevana Zêrîn, we condemn the bloody attack on the Ahmet Kaya Cultural Centre. If the French state is not itself an accomplice, it must expose and accuse the murders and those behind them. The government of France must realise that sooner or later it will be indicted in history and in the conscience of the people as long as it does not investigate and condemn the murders. We bow with great respect to the artist Mîr Perwer and his two murdered companions, and we remember all Kurds and women who do not hesitate to pay any price. We call on all artists, especially women artists, to resist in the squares until the massacre at the Ahmet Kaya Cultural Centre is resolved."

Mîr Perwer was a native of the province of Muş and had not long lived in France, where he had applied for asylum. He had to leave his homeland due to political persecution by the Turkish state. He was active in the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and was therefore sentenced to prison by the Turkish judiciary on "terror charges". Most recently, he tried to catch up with his wife and their two children. Mîr Perwer belonged to the Kurdish cultural movement TEV-ÇAND. After the murder, many Kurdish musicians shared videos of Mîr Perwer and commemorated him.