PARIS (AP) – Kurdish activists, left-wing politicians and anti-racism groups demonstrated Saturday in Paris after three people were killed at a Kurdish cultural center in an attack that prosecutors say was racially motivated.
The shooting in a bustling central Paris neighborhood also wounded three people and raised concerns about hate crimes against minority groups at a time when far-right voices have gained prominence in France and across Europe in recent years.
The suspected attacker was injured and is in custody. He is a 69-year-old Parisian who was charged last year with attacking migrants and was released earlier this month. He faces possible charges of racially motivated murder and attempted murder, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Saturday.
Thousands gathered Saturday in the Place de la Republique in eastern Paris, waving a colorful spectrum of flags representing Kurdish rights groups, political parties and other causes. The rally was largely peaceful, although some youths threw shells and clashed with police who fired tear gas. Some protesters shouted slogans against the Turkish government.
Most of the demonstrators were ethnic Kurds of different generations who gathered to mourn the three people who were killed, share concerns that they do not feel safe and ask how this kind of attack could happen in central Paris.
The shooting shocked the Kurdish community in the French capital and put police on extra alert for the Christmas weekend.
Paris’ police chief met with members of the Kurdish community on Saturday to try to allay their fears ahead of Saturday’s rally.
France’s interior ministry reported a 13 percent increase in race-related crimes or other offenses in 2021 compared to 2019, following an 11 percent increase from 2018 to 2019. The ministry did not include 2020 in its statistics. due to consecutive pandemic lockdowns that year. He said a disproportionate number of such crimes target people of African descent and also cited hundreds of religious-based attacks.
Friday’s attack took place at the cultural center and a nearby Kurdish restaurant and Kurdish hair salon. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the suspect was clearly targeting foreigners and had acted alone and was not officially affiliated with any far-right or other radical movements. The suspect had previous convictions for illegal possession of weapons and armed violence.
Kurdish activists said they had recently been warned by police of threats against Kurdish targets.
In 2013, three Kurdish women activists, including Sakine Cansiz, a founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, were found shot to death in a Kurdish center in Paris.
The Turkish military is battling Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed PKK in southeastern Turkey as well as northern Iraq. The Turkish military also recently launched a series of air and artillery strikes against Syrian Kurdish militant targets in northern Syria.
By JEFFREY SCHAEFFER and ANGELA CHARLTON Associated Press
