In Paris, supporters in of the PKK terror organization on Friday wounded at least six police officers during clashes after a deadly mass shooting, according to local media.
Clashes between angry Kurds and the police broke out on Friday. The city’s police chief met with members of the Kurdish community on the next day to allay their fears ahead of the rally.
Saturday’s march was largely peaceful, but some scuffles broke out between groups of protesters and the police.
Small fires were set alight as several cars were overturned.
The police responded with tear gas to the violence by the terrorist group supporters.
France is literally taken hostage by the PKK, a Marxist-Leninist terror group outlawed in the whole EU
Its sympathisers have been burning Paris down, setting cars on fire and fighting French police for two days straight now pic.twitter.com/IRet3eXKmm
— Yunus Paksoy (@yunuspaksoy) December 24, 2022
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. In 2013, three Kurdish women, including a founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), were killed in a shooting at a Kurdish center in Paris.
Though normally officially banned, the terrorist group also has a presence in numerous European countries.
The violence started in the area after French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin visited the site of a shooting on Enghien Street in the center of Paris.
A 69-year-old gunman in Paris had earlier opened fire, killing at least three people and injuring three others, local media reported.
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He was placed in custody and an investigation was launched.
The motivations of the Paris shooting remain unknown, Darmanin said. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also said the suspect was likely targeting foreigners but he was not officially affiliated with any far-right or radical groups.
Suspected racist motivations behind the attack will be investigated, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau also said.
Après la tragédie hier, pas certains que les activistes kurdes du PKK s’attirent la sympathie des Français en ravageant le centre de Paris avec le soutien opportuniste de l’extrême-gauche. En quoi cela sert-il la mémoire des victimes du meurtrier raciste ? pic.twitter.com/pIV2v8xi8e
— Aurélien Véron (@aurelien_veron) December 24, 2022
“We know that we are under threat, Kurds in general, Kurdish activists and militants. France owes us protection,” Berivan Firat, a spokesperson for the Kurdish democratic council in France CDK-F said.
Anadolu Agency Story with additional input from Global Village Space News Desk.