Politicians and city officials in Paris joined Kurds and their allies who gathered at the scene of the Paris massacre of 2013 on its 11th anniversary.
Representative for the 10th Arrondisement Council Elie Jousseain said the confidentiality order for the case of the killing of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founding member Sakine Cansız, Kurdish National Congress Representative Fidan Doğan and Kurdish youth activist Leyla Şaylemez had still not been lifted after 11 years, paving the way for the killing of another three Kurdish activists at a cultural centre in 2022.
“If the government had removed the confidentiality order 11 years ago, Evîn Goyî, Mîr Perwer and Abdurrahman Kızıl would be among us today. We will continue our fight to protect Kurds to the end,” Mezopotamya Agency cited Jousseain as saying. “We state unambiguously that those who fought against the Islamic State (ISIS) will always have a home here.”
Vincent Boulet, international representative of the French Communist Party (PCF) joined the call to lift the confidentiality order on the massacre, and called for international solidarity for the release of “Kurdish prisoners held in [Turkish President] Erdoğan’s dungeons”.
“Kurds have been fighting for their national rights, that have been ignored by greater powers. They fought and defeated ISIS, and are now left to fend for themselves,” Boulet said.
Renê Le Mignot, member of the Movement against Racism and for Friendship Between Peoples (MRAP), said the second massacre “would not have happened if justice had been served”.
“We call on the French government to stop cooperating with a fascist regime that arrests academics, students and journalists,” Le Mignot said, urging the removal of the PKK from the European Union’s terrorism list.
“Previous international courts in Paris and Brussels have ruled that the PKK is not a terrorist organisation. They fight against ISIS, and we owe a lot to them,” she added.
France-Kurdistan Association member Sylvie Jan said the continued inclusion of the PKK in the terrorism list amounts to an attempt to criminalise Kurds. “As such, it is essential to remove the PKK from the list of terrorist organisations, not just for Kurds but also for the establishment of international justice and peace. As long as this region is under bombardment, the whole world will remain under threat,” she said.
Berivan Fırat, foreign relations spokesperson for the Kurdish Democratic Council of France, pointed to Turkish intelligence for the massacre.
“We know the Turkish secret service is behind this political massacre. However, the confidentiality order on the case prevents documents in the possession of the French secret service from being presented at court,” Fırat said. “Turkish intelligence, running free on French soil, conducted another massacre in December 2022, believing they had free rein. We call on France to stop using Kurds for their own political gain.”
