Tens of thousands of Kurds and their allies poured into the streets of Paris on Saturday to protest against what they say is an eleven-year cover-up by the French justice and security services of the killing of three Kurds in 2013. The demonstrators demanded transparency from the French authorities over the triple murder, which evidence suggests was a contract killing carried out by Turkish intelligence.
Gathering at the Gare du Nord in the early hours of the morning, the huge crowd poured into Place de la République to demand the lifting of the state secrecy order on the case files. The speakers who addressed the crowd stressed the need for accountability and justice in the case.
The Kurdish Women’s Movement in Europe (TJK-E) spokesman Ayten Kaplan expressed his frustration that those who ordered the massacre continue to be protected. Stressing that the Kurdish community’s quest for justice will continue, Kaplan called on the French authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Senator Hélène Bidard of the French Communist Party addressed the crowd and said: ‘The three women killed in the massacre represented three different generations. The massacre was carried out by the Turkish secret service. We want an investigation into this incident. Pascal Torre, co-president of the Coordination Nationale Solidarité Kurdistan, stressed that the truth behind the massacres could not be revealed without lifting the secrecy of the case files.
Senator Remi Féraud, speaking on behalf of the 10th arrondissement of Paris and the municipality of Paris, denounced the attacks as political massacres and called for the case to be treated as a terrorist attack. Féraud expressed the city’s rejection of such incidents and called for a terrorist court to hear the case.
The protest was organised by the Kurdish Democratic Council of France (CDK-F), the Kurdish Women’s Movement in Europe (TJK-E) and the European Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress (KCDK-E).
The victims, Kurdistan.Workers’ Party (PKK) co-founder Sakine Cansız, Paris representative of the Kurdish National Congress (KNK) Fidan Doğan and youth activist Leyla Şaylemez, were gunned down in broad daylight in the offices of a Kurdish information centre in French capital on 9 January 2013.
Investigations have uncovered documents, audio recordings and testimonies pointing to an assassination orchestrated by Turkish intelligence. But the French domestic intelligence service has treated the case as a state secret and refused to disclose its findings. The accused killer died in custody in suspicious circumstances shortly before the trial began in December 2016.
In December 2022, just weeks before the tenth anniversary of the 2013 assassinations, three more Kurdish activists were killed in an armed attack on a Kurdish cultural centre in Paris. European Kurdish organisations accuse the French authorities of prolonging and deliberately failing to conclude the 2013 case, leading to the 2022 attacks, and argue that France’s failure to properly investigate the two attacks suggests Turkish protection. The lack of accountability, they warn, increases the risk of further attacks.
The Kurdish community in Europe call for clarity and justice, emphasising that these attacks target the Kurdish community and the Kurdish women’s movement.
