There have been protests in Marseille against the arrests of Kurdish activists on Wednesday morning. The police searched several apartments in the southern French city. Apparently the searches were related to the protests against the Paris attack on 23 December. After the murder of three Kurdish activists in front of the Ahmet Kaya cultural center, numerous young people took to the streets, especially in Paris and Marseille, to express their anger and to make it clear that the massacres of Kurds were not being accepted without objection and they would not allow themselves to be intimidated.

It wasn’t clear how many people were arrested on Wednesday. Scores of people gathered on the Canebière in the old part of Marseille and marched to the police headquarters demanding “freedom for our friends, justice for Kurds”. A statement was made on behalf of the Kurdish Youth Movement (Tevgera Ciwanen Şoreşger -TCŞ).

The statement said: “After the massacre committed in Paris by a fascist on the instructions of the Turkish state and secret service on 23 December 2022, Kurds living in Europe took to the streets to express their anger at this attack as well as the massacre committed ten years ago, in Paris.

France and other European countries have been criminalizing the legitimate struggle of the PKK and the Kurdish movement in Europe for years. Our friends have been arrested for protesting the two Paris massacres. The European states, and France in particular, cannot defame our justified struggle and cannot intimidate us with arrests. We will continue to demand justice for the Kurds. The people behind the massacres must be exposed and our friends must be released immediately.”