QAMIHSLI, Syria (North Press) – Paris shooting, that took place on Friday and resulted in casualties, evoked demonstrations and clashes in central Paris, and local and international condemnations with hands pointed at Turkey to be behind the attack.
The attack targeted Kurdish community center, Ahmet-Kaya Center, restaurant and a hairdressing solon, in Strasbourg-Saint Denis in the 10th district of Paris, resulting in the death of three people, and the injury of four others including the attacker who was arrested.
Angry demonstrations
A few hours after the shooting, Kurdish demonstrations broke out in central Paris, demanding French authorities to expose the parties behind the attack.
However, French police men used teargas to disperse the protestors.
Attacker’s background
prosecutor Laure Beccuau said that the attacker, William M. in the French media, 69, had already charged with two previous offenses, as he was convicted over the first case in Paris in 2016, however, he was freed on appeal, and he was charged with racist violence in 2021, as he attacked migrants in tents with a sword in Bercy in Paris, injuring two people, according to AFP, citing a police source.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters, near the attack scene, that the attacker is French and “was not on any radicalism watch lists, or known for involvement in any extreme-right or other political movements.”
Police sources said that the attacker is “Caucasian” of French nationality.
However, the gunman’s motivation is still unknown, but his identity and previous crimes raised “racist suspicions.”
International condemnations
Hours after the attack, France President Emmanuel Macron said the “heinous attack” that was carried out in central Paris targeted “Kurds of France.”
The French president made his words through his tweeter account, saying in French, “Thoughts to the victims, to the people who are struggling to live, to their families and love ones.”
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his sympathy with the attack’s victims, saying, “My thoughts are with the members of the Kurdish community and people of France on this sad day.”
Local condemnations
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Commander in Chief, Mazloum Abdi, condemned the attack, stressing that it targets the Kurdish cause.
On the same day, the President of the Executive Committee of Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), Ilham Ahmad, tweeted, condemning the attack and calling on Macron to “persecute the offender to ensure such painful events will not be repeated.”
In addition, Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) released a statement, saying that the shooting “returns the attempts of terrorism to regain its power and policies against civilians and the world in general.”
The AANES called on the French government to expose those who stand behind this “terrorist act” soon.
In his turn, Badran Chiya Kurd, co-chair of the Foreign Relations Department of the AANES, condemned the “terrorist act with a political background” and called on the French government to investigate the background of the attack.
“We suspect the involvement of the enemies of the Kurds in this terrorist attack,” Chiya Kurd added.
Behind the scene
Agit Polat, spokesperson of Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F), said in a press conference that “political situation in Turkey pushes us to consider the incident as political assassinations.”
“The council deems that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey are behind these assassinations,” according to the spokesperson.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, former member of the National Assembly of France, said, in the conference, that he does not “believe in coincidences when it comes to assassinating the Kurds in Paris.”
The attack comes in tandem with the approaching tenth anniversary of targeting three Kurdish female activists, Sakine Cansız, co-founder of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Laila Shylmez and Vidan Dogan in Paris in January 9, 2013.