Outside a Kurdish community centre in the heart of Paris, where a gunman earlier killed three people and injured four others in an incident with suspected racist overtones, French police on Friday shot tear gas amid exchanges with irate protestors.
Kurds made up all three victims who were killed within and close to the Kurdish Cultural Center Ahmet-Kaya on Rue d’Enghien, the center’s attorney told AWN.
A 69-year-old French guy with a lengthy criminal history who is the alleged attacker has been taken into custody.
Gerald Darmanin, the French interior minister, told reporters there that he was not a member of any far-right organisations under police surveillance. According to Darmanin, the suspect “obviously wanted to take it out on outsiders.”
No current information, he continued, “can allow us to know if the attack is especially targeting Kurdish people.”
During Darmanin’s visit to the scene of the attack on Friday, there were altercations with dozens of demonstrators, the majority of whom were from the Kurdish diaspora.
Although the shooting has not been classified as a terrorist assault, Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau earlier on Friday stated that authorities are not completely ruling out the possibility that the shooting had “racial motivations.”
Beccuau added, “Of course these factors are part of the investigation that was recently initiated when it comes to racist reasons.
In a tweet on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the “heinous attack” that “the Kurds of France have been the target.”
“A terrible attack in the centre of Paris was directed at the Kurds of France. My condolences go out to the victims, the survivors, their families, and loved ones. My appreciation to our law police for their bravery and composure,” stated Macron.
Following the attack, police have been instructed to guard Kurdish sites and Turkish diplomatic facilities around France, according to Darmanin.
Additionally, he has requested that Kurdish citizens who wish to hold protests be permitted to do so from the French president and prime minister.
The 10th arrondissement shooting’s facts are being “evaluated” by Paris’ anti-terror prosecutor, but the city’s judicial authorities are still in charge of the inquiry, the prosecutor’s office informed AWN on Friday.
The prosecutor’s office stated, “We are reviewing the information to ascertain if the event should be classed as an act of terrorism.”
A prior record
The Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the shooting suspect was freed from custody less than two weeks ago because a judge is still looking into his prior involvement in violence of a “racial nature.”
He was found guilty of using a firearm twice, in 2017 and 2022. According to the declaration, a Paris court also opened an investigation in 2021 for violence “of a discriminatory nature.”
Due to the most recent incident, he is currently being held in pre-trial detention while the court investigates.
The statement read, “At this time, there is no information that this man is connected to any radical ideology movement.”
According to AWN’s team on the ground, after the event, masses gathered close to the centre where people of Kurdish heritage could be heard shouting the Kurdish proverb “ehid Namirin,” which translates to “Those who are lost are never really lost but with us.”
In allusion to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s vehement opposition to Kurdish nationalism and his treatment of far-left militant and political organisations with bases in Turkey and Iraq, several individuals were also heard screaming “Murderer Erdogan.”
