After the fatal shooting in Paris, the French judiciary assumed that the perpetrator was a racist individual. But for the Kurdish umbrella organisation, the trail leads to Turkey.

The two crime scenes in Paris are only a short walk apart. Is there a connection between the attack on three Kurdish women freedom fighters on 9 January 2013 and the shooting of three Kurds on 23 December 2022? Most of the participants in Wednesday's commemorative march, which led from the Kurdish cultural centre in Rue D'Enghien to Rue La Fayette near Paris' North Station, are convinced that there is.

Photos of the six victims are held up at the front of the march. "Ten years after 9 January, the Turkish state has again murdered three of our friends in Paris," reads one banner. "The French state does not protect us," reads another. "For the CDK-F there is no doubt that Turkey and its secret services (. . .) are involved," it also says officially in a communiqué of the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F), the umbrella organisation of 24 Kurdish associations. "This is the second time that Paris has been the scene of a politically motivated attack against Kurds."

A few hours after the shooting outside the Kurdish cultural centre, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin ruled out the possibility of a targeted attack on Kurds. President Emmanuel Macron, on the other hand, wrote on Twitter: "The Kurds in France were the target of a vile attack in the middle of Paris." In April 2019, Macron had received Kurdish fighters at the Elysée Palace who were fighting against the terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS). In November 2019, he criticised the "brain death of NATO" because the transatlantic defence alliance was allowing Turkish President Erdogan to lead military actions against Kurdish allies in Syria. Erdogan then sneered that Macron should have his own brain death checked.

"Pathological hatred of foreigners" as motive?

The French judiciary is not currently investigating a terrorist background. The responsible public prosecutor announced on 25 December that there were no indications of a connection to "an extremist ideology". The judiciary is investigating the 69-year-old Frenchman William M., a retired train driver who, in his own words, harbours a "pathological hatred of foreigners", for intentional homicide. William M. had already taken action on 8 December 2021, attacking a tent camp of refugees in the east of the capital with a sabre. He damaged several tents and injured a 16-year-old Sudanese and a 39-year-old Ethiopian, some of them seriously.

But the public prosecutor's office did not charge him with attempted homicide. Proceedings were initiated against William M. for damage to property and weapons violence. Ten days before the shooting of the Kurds, the man was released from custody. Much remains unclear: Why was William M. in possession of firearms? How did he choose his victims? Did someone provide him with logistical help?

The mistrust among the approximately 300,000 Kurds in France is also so great because the judiciary never solved the murder of the three freedom fighters, Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Saylemez, ten years ago. The main suspect succumbed to a brain tumor shortly before his trial. The prosecutor's indictment states that the Turkish secret service is suspected of involvement in the preparation of the murders. However, the investigating judges were also thwarted in their investigations with reference to the secrecy of the defence. The Kurdish organisations are demanding that the French government lift the defence secrecy.

Further commemorative marches announced

The Turkish leadership is following events in Paris closely. When riots broke out on the fringes of commemorative events shortly after the latest murders, Ankara summoned the French ambassador. He was accused of tolerating anti-Turkish organisations on its territory.

The profile of those murdered raises further questions. Among the three victims is Emine Kara, who is said to have led a Kurdish unit in the fight against the terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS) under her war name Evin Goyi. Kara had fled Turkey and was living with her family in a camp in southern Kurdistan in Iraq. The woman, also called "Evin from the mountains", was involved in the recapture of the city of Raqqa by Kurdish forces in 2017, according to witnesses. She came to France injured and applied for asylum. She led the Kurdish women's movement and is said to have coined the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom".

"Evin fought against the Islamic State, that's why she was targeted," said Xavne Akdogan, co-chair of the Kurdish Democratic Council at the funeral service in Villiers-le-Bel near Paris on Tuesday. Several thousand Kurds from all over Europe had gathered in the commune to pay their last respects to the three dead. "Erdogan is attacking us in Paris because he was not successful in the mountains of Kurdistan," Akdogan said.

The other two fatalities, musician Miren Perwer and activist Abdurrahman Kizil, were persecuted in Turkey. Both had been recognised as asylum seekers in France. The French government did not send a representative to the funeral service in Villiers-le-Bel. At the mourning ceremony, the mayor of Sarcelles, the Socialist Patrick Haddad, called for better police protection for places belonging to the Kurdish community. A commemorative march is to be organised at the North Station in Paris on Saturday. "We will not rest until the murders are relentlessly solved," the Kurdish umbrella organisation announced.