A man, claiming to be a former member of a Turkish military group, has been taken into custody in Paris over an attack against a Kurdish centre in early March, journalist Guillaume Perrier reported.
According to Perrier, the former Turkey correspondent of the French daily Le Monde, the man is suspected of organizing the attack on 3 March against the Ahmet Kaya cultural centre in Paris.
The attack followed a similar attack against the same cultural centre on 23 December that cost the lives of three Kurdish activists and wounded three others.
In relation to the December incident, French authorities arrested a 69-year-old man who had previously assaulted Sudanese immigrants and was sentenced for illegally carrying firearms.
While French authorities claimed the attack was organised by a lone wolf, Kurds staged protests in Paris arguing that the attack was connected to the assassinations of three Kurdish women 10 years ago, and that Turkey was behind both attacks.
Following the attack, French authorities started protecting the cultural centre with three police men, however another attack occurred despite police presence on 3 March, Le Monde reported on 20 March.
Perrier said that the suspect under custody for the 3 March attack told French authorities that he formerly worked for Turkish paramilitary group SADAT, known as Turkey’s Wagner.
The group is believed to be a crucial part of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s paramilitary forces. It is presented as a private security and consulting company established in 2012 by former military officials who were dismissed after being charged with promoting and supporting extremist Islamist ideologies.
