📌#PARIS | At least 25,000 demonstrators took part a march in Paris to pay tribute to three female #Kurdish activists murdered in the #French capital in 2013, and to demand truth and justice for the victims.#ParisMassacreOfKurds | #JeSuisKurde #Parishttps://t.co/ysBZJAdXRV pic.twitter.com/CmZY7XtJ4N
— MedyaNews (@1MedyaNews) January 7, 2023
Several thousand people gathered in Paris on Saturday to pay tribute to three female Kurdish activists murdered in the French capital in 2013.
Saturday’s annual march, which has brought together the Kurdish community every year since the assossinations, came two weeks after three more Kurds were killed, in the Ahmet Kaya Kurdish Cultural Centre in the centre of Paris, by a 69-year-old Frenchman.
At least 25,000 demonstrators demanding truth and justice for the victims took part in the march, according to organisers. The crowd rallied in la Place de la République at midday, passing through the scenes of the two triple murders, of 2013 and 2022.
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founding member Sakine Cansız (54), youth movement member Leyla Şaylemez (24), and Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) representative Fidan Doğan (28) were killed in the Kurdish Information Centre in Paris on 9 January 2013 by a Turkish national who had ties with Turkey’s intelligence services (MIT).
The attacker lost his life from a brain tumour in prison a few weeks before the start of his trial in 2016. The investigation of the French judiciary, which stressed the involvement of MIT without however designating sponsors, continues. MIT has officially denied any involvement.
Kurds in France disagree with the claim of the French authorities that the second triple murder on 23 December 2022 was committed by a lone wolf, and continue to implicate Turkey for both assassinations.
The French authorities arrested a retired train conductor with a history of racist attacks for killing the three Kurds, and wounding three others in the same attack.
