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Tens of thousands of Kurds and their French supporters took to the streets in Paris on Saturday to commemorate the victims in the assassination 10 years ago of three Kurdish political activists: Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Saylemez.
French politicians and lawyers attending the demonstrations told MedyaNews that the French state has a responsibility to clarify the truth about the assassinations.
Jerôme Gleizes, Member of Paris City Council for the Greens:
As we have a top secret classification on the documents, not all the information is available, the prosecutor does not even give all the information to the lawyers. The truth must come out, all the information must become available.
The French authorities have imposed a top secret classification on some of the documents, which prevents the entire truth from coming out. Lawyers and French MPs are demanding that this top secret stamp on the documents be lifted.
Elsa Fauçillon, French Communist Party MP:
With regard to the killings 10 years ago, we are simply demanding a reaction from the French government, because we have the strong impression that the French government does not care about it at all. We need them to push the investigation forward. France must stop its compliance with Turkey, because there is real compliance today with commercial trade and political collaboration. This prevents the truth coming out.
Vincent Nioré, Paris lawyer:
On a judicial level, it’s extremely simple. French justice system is competent to research evidence of the truth. It’s their role. The French penal code obliges them to do so. That’s why the opposition of the government to the French justice system, to their judges and their lawyers who are working, imposing a top secret classification on documents, makes no sense. There are indications of the participation of secret services in criminal acts. It’s absurd and the top secret classification on the documents should be lifted.
With the recent new triple assassination of Kurds in the heart of Paris, anger amongst Kurds and their supporters has grown high. They say that France supported the Kurds in Rojava, now France should protect the Kurds when they ask for it.
Mathilde Panot, La France Insoumise MP:
In Rojava, an absolutely incredible political project is being created: emancipatory, ecological, feminist. It defends human values that we too defend, at the France Insoumise. It’s an inspiration for our movement and for all the peoples in the world. We maintain very regular links with the Kurds. They are really inspiring us and we can learn a lot from them.
Cybèle David, representative of the trade union Solidaires:
The struggle in Rojava is very important for us, because for our organisation, an experience of social transformation acheived by those communities, with women playing an important role, is an example to us of the society that we want to build. The French state has responsibilities. We want justice, we want the judicial files be declassified, we want a real investigation, we want the responsibility of those who gave the orders for the assassination of the three women 10 years ago to be finally revealed, and we want the PKK be removed from the list of terrorist organisations.
New evidence has obliged the French judicial system to reopen an investigation into those who gave the orders for the killings in Paris 10 years ago. Whether the French government will submit to the pressure of the judges is yet to be seen.
