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Amed Dicle
Yet another planned attack against the Kurds was executed in the French capital Paris on 23 December 2022. One of those who lost their lives was a female politician who had struggled for 34 years for the rights of the Kurdish people, and was also a commander who had served in northern Syria against ISIS, one was an artist and the other an elderly Kurd who had had to leave his homeland decades earlier in order not to rot in the [Turkish] prisons…
The Kurds, their friends and other concerned individuals are justifiably angered by this savage attack. They are angry because Kurds are anyway being murdered every day in the mountains, villages and plains of Kurdistan. It is intolerable that they should be slaughtered in this way in the middle of Europe. In situations like this the Kurds inevitably resist, recalling their proverbs: ‘We are not sacrificial lambs!’ and ‘Our blood is not and will not be so cheap!’
Immediately after the attack reactions started coming in from the French authorities and the world. But what the Kurds expect is that light shall be thrown on this attack, because they have legitimate concerns on this front. On 9 January 2013, [Kurdish activists] Sakine Cansız, Leyla Şaylemez, and Fidan Doğan were murdered, [also in Paris,] also all in one day. The murderer was a hit man trained by Turkish intelligence. But the French judiciary and state mechanism did not waste effort on throwing light on this murder, quite the opposite. Certain documents were kept confidential, claimed to be ‘state secrets’. Which state? What secrets? Why should the killing of three women be a state secret? The Kurds are concerned that the fate of the 23 December massacre will be the same as that of the 9 January case. This situation increases their anger.
Forty-eight hours after the attack there are still some questions that have not been answered, as follows:
1-The attacker was released from prison on 12 December. He should have been under police supervision; how did he manage to plan this attack within ten days?
2-Where did he obtain the firearm and so many bullets? How did he get from his home to the street where the attack took place with a bag full of ammunition?
3-It has been said that he went to the scene of the attack by car. Whose car was this? Who dropped him off there?
4-There was to be a meeting attended by 60 people at the time he attacked his first target, the Ahmet Kaya Culture Centre. Did the attacker know about this meeting? (The meeting was to be for the anniversary of the 9 January attack). If he knew about it where did he get the information? Was his bag full of bullets because he knew about the meeting?
5-Did the attacker know the Kurdish woman politician of 34 years Evin Goyi, that he targeted her in particular and returned to her to fire more bullets into her after going a little further?
6-After this the attacker attacked the Avesta cafe out in the street. Did he target this business particularly because he knew that its owner was also on the management committee of the Kurdish Culture Centre?
7-He then turned to the barber’s shop, because the people there were also connected to the Kurdish association. If his motive was racism why did he head for the barbers 100 metres away despite there being other shops in between?
8-In summary: If he had racist motives why did he only attack Kurds, and why did he only attack specific people from among the Kurds?
9-Is it not clear from looking at the above questions as a whole that this was not an ordinary attack, and not one of a single person but the work of a professional team?
10-An easier question: Is any person or persons within the French state mechanism connected to this? As we have no doubt that the Turkish intelligence was behind the attack we don’t bother to ask that question.
11-Why are we not being told who the attacker was detained with when he was in prison until 12 December. Were there any ISIS members among them?
12-The attacker was imprisoned until 12 December and then released, so why in that time were no observations made or report drawn up to the effect that his state of health was not favourable, when he was put under psychiatric care after he attacked the Kurds?
13-And the last question: The Kurds and their friends arranged a rally in la Place de la Republique on 24 December. A white minibus was moving around through the middle of that rally [with someone who] made the sign of the Turkish racists the Grey Wolves, a symbol of hostility to the Kurds. It was after this that trouble started and unpleasant scenes broke out. How did that minibus get there? Was another massacre being planned or was it intended as an act of provocation to criminalise the Kurds?
14-Will the statement of the Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu in reference to this attack where he said, ‘We will bring an end to terrorism all over the world’ be entered into the case file? Because in the eyes of Soylu and the [Turkish] government all Kurds fall into the category of ‘terrorist’…
Evin Goyi (Emine Kara), who was murdered in the attack was an important commander in the fight against ISIS in northern Syria. She was wounded there many times. She came to France for treatment for permanent injuries on her body. She was receiving treatment, and she was also working on behalf of the Kurdish women’s movement there. Her application to the French state for asylum was rejected. Why? Why when the Turkish state had a red bulletin out for Evin Goyi did the French state pave the way for the Erdoğan regime to target her? For what reasons? To whose benefit?
Amed Dicle was born and raised in Diyarbakır, Turkey. He has worked for Kurdish-language media outlets in Europe including Roj TV, Sterk TV and currently ANF. His career has taken him to Rojava, Syria, Iraq and many countries across Europe. Follow him on Twitter.
