The Paris protests against a shooting at the Kurdish Cultural Center Ahmet-Kaya on Rue d’Enghien
In Paris, protesters clashed with police on Saturday as the Kurdish community took to the streets to demand justice in the wake of Friday’s deadly shooting at a cultural center.
The clashes with dozens of protesters, mostly from the Kurdish diaspora, broke out when French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin was visiting the scene of the shooting, at Kurdish Cultural Center Ahmet-Kaya on Rue d’Enghien.
The suspect has been arrested. All three people killed during the shooting inside and near the center were Kurds, the center’s lawyer confirmed to CNN.
Kurdish sites and Turkish diplomatic institutions have been protected by the police in Paris and across France.
Paris’ anti-terror prosecutor is “evaluating” the facts, but the investigation is still being led by the city’s judicial authorities, the anti-terror prosecutor’s office told CNN Friday.
Following the incident, crowds gathered near the center, where people from the Kurdish diaspora were heard chanting the Kurdish phrase “Şehid Namirin,” which means: Those who are lost are never really lost but with us, according to CNN’s team on the ground.
Some people were also heard chanting “Murderer Erdogan,” in a reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s robust stance against Kurdish nationalism, and his policies towards Kurdish far-left militant and political groups based in Turkey and Iraq.
PARIS — A shooting targeting a Kurdish cultural center in a bustling Paris neighborhood Friday left three people dead and three others wounded, authorities said. The suspect was wounded and arrested.
The suspected attacker was wounded and detained, and transferred Saturday to psychiatric care, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The 69-year-old Parisian had been charged with attacking a migrant camp last year and released from jail earlier this month. He may face murder and attempted murder charges for Friday’s shooting because of a racist motive.
Police used tear gas to break up the crowd after the shooting, when members of the Kurdish community shouted slogans against the Turkish government. Garbage bins were set on fire.
A restaurant and hairdresser were near the Kurdish cultural center where the shooting occurred, according to the mayor for the 10th arrondissement.
A construction worker who was on a job nearby described seeing the assailant go first to the cultural center, then to the restaurant and then the hairdresser. The construction worker told The Associated Press that he saw the assailant injure three people, then two passersby intervened and stopped the attacker.
The worker, who spoke on condition his name not be published because he was concerned for his security, described the attacker as silent and calm as he wielded a small-caliber pistol.
Activistes anti-kurde et militants en r’egule du 10e arrondissement de Paris
The 10th arrondissement has a busy street with shops and restaurants close to the Gare de l’Est train station.
The prosecutor said the suspect had at least two prior run-ins with police: the attack on migrants in tents in eastern Paris in 2021, and a recent conviction in another case in a Paris suburb. She didn’t elaborate on details of either case.
The attacker attended a shooting range in a sports club, and had several registered weapons, Darmanin said. He added that the attacker is French and was not on any radicalism watch lists, or known for involvement in any extreme-right or other political movements.
Activist Murat Roni told The AP that they do not feel protected in Paris. “We do not feel like we are defended by the French justice system.” It’s clear that the Kurds were targeted.
He said the center was “a gathering place for cultural events, political discussion, assistance with immigration procedures, and a house where all Kurds get together.”
Three women, including a founder of the PKK, were found dead at a Kurdish center in Paris.
Turkey’s army has long been battling against Kurdish militants affiliated with the banned PKK in southeast Turkey as well as in northern Iraq. Turkey’s military also recently launched a series of air and artillery strikes against Syrian Kurdish militant targets in northern Syria.
Images of the protesters and police clash have been broadcasted live by CNN, as well as by news agencies like Agence France-Presse.
The area near Place de la République in the centre of the French capital is the scene of ongoing skirmishes, which are close to the site of Friday’s shooting of Ahmet- Kaya Kurdish cultural center.
The Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDKF) called off a march in central Paris on Saturday due to the violence that erupted after the shooting.
“To avoid damages at the Place de la République and people getting injured, we (the CDKF) have put an end to the march,” spokesperson Berivan Firat told BFMTV Saturday, adding that from now on the group will no longer be held responsible for the actions of protesters.
After the march was canceled, protesters remain at Place de la République and Place de la Bastille. The Place de Bastille has been a scene of violent unrest, with some cars turned upside down and burned.
Paris’ Kurdish community mourns the killing of a scalar gunman with a gun on a Paris cultural center
Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez was scheduled to meet with leaders of the Kurdish community today at 10 a.m. local time, at the request of French President Emmanuel Macron and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, Paris Police said in a statement.
He was not part of any far-right groups monitored by the police, Darmanin told journalists at the scene. The suspect wanted to take it out on foreigners, according to the minister.
Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Friday that investigators aren’t ruling out racist motives behind the shooting, which has not been designated a terrorist attack.
PARIS — Members of France’s Kurdish community and anti-racism activists joined together in mourning and anger on Saturday in Paris after three people were killed at a Kurdish cultural center in an attack that prosecutors say was racially motivated.
Thousands gathered Saturday at the Place de la Republique in eastern Paris, waving a colorful spectrum of flags representing Kurdish rights groups, left-wing political movements and other causes.
It’s really sad for us. We have been destroyed because of the loss of an important member of our community. How is this possible?” said demonstrator Yekbun Ogur, a middle school biology teacher in Paris. Is it weird that a man with a gun could sneak into a cultural place and kill people?
Demonstrator Yunus Cicek wiped his tears away as spoke of the victims, and his fears. “We are not protected here. I don’t feel safe even though I’m a political refugee. Maybe next time it will be me.”
French police increased their vigilance for the Christmas weekend after the shooting shook the Kurdish community. The police chief met with the Kurds to try to allay their fears.
France’s Interior Ministry reported that there was a rise in race-related crimes over the course of the next two years. The ministry did not include 2020 in its statistics because of successive pandemic lockdowns that year. It said a disproportionate number of such crimes target people of African descent, and also cited hundreds of attacks based on religion.
A search for the attackers of the Kurdish hair salon in Batsnyi el-Zatsepin-Instantons
Friday’s attack took place at the cultural center and a nearby Kurdish restaurant and Kurdish hair salon. Surveillance video from the hair salon shared online suggests people in the salon subdued the attacker before police reached the scene. The prosecutor’s office would not elaborate on the circumstances of his arrest.