“Let the whole world public know that this killing is not independent from the policies and encouragement of the Turkish state which turns Kurds into a target for genocidal policies and any form of aggression and massacre.”
The Kurdish Cultural Center in the French capital Paris was targeted by an armed attack on Friday. According to eyewitnesses, an armed assailant opened fire on the Kurdish Cultural Center before shooting at a restaurant and a hairdresser’s salon owned by the Kurds on the same street. While the attack has resulted in deaths and injuries, the assailant, reportedly 69 years old, has been arrested by the police.
The Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress in Europe (KCDK-E) released a statement expressing anger over the attack in Paris which killed two and injured four.
The KCDK-E statement on Friday includes the following:
“The motives and goal of this attack cannot be understood without understanding the policies that cause Kurds to become targets as they organize in various institutions in Europe where they are forced to live as refugees due to the Turkish state’s war on the Kurdish people.
Regardless of the identity and motives of the assailant, the French state should know that he was guided by the Turkish state, and fulfil its responsibility.
Let the whole world public know that this killing is not independent from the policies and encouragement of the Turkish state, which turns Kurds into a target for genocidal policies and any form of aggression and massacre. Wherever the attack might come from, the Kurds are rendered vulnerable to unlawful and arbitrary actions due to the Turkish state’s policies of a dirty war against the Kurdish people. With its army, police and ISIS-like mercenary structures, the Turkish state carries its all-out warfare and criminalization policies against the Kurdish people’s freedom struggle into the international arena.
The murderer of Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez in the very same city in 2013 committed another murder with the same motivation today. Had the French state shed light on this mass killing, today’s killings might not have taken place.
We urge our people to gather in front of the Ahmet Kaya Kurdish Cultural Center in Paris and we call on our people and friends in other countries of Europe to take to the streets to condemn the massacre.”
