Kurds in France and Europe pay homage to those killed in the shooting

The community is in mourning. More than two weeks after the racist attack perpetrated in the 10th arrondissement of Paris against Kurds, thousands of members of the community gathered on Tuesday in Villiers-le-Bel (Val-d’Oise). They attended the highly political funeral of the three Kurds killed before Christmas.

At midday, the remains of Abdurrahman Kizil, Mir Perwer, a Kurdish political refugee singer, and Emine Kara, leader of the Kurdish Women’s Movement in France, pushed through a dense crowd to enter a rented village hall for the occasion. Wrapped in the flags of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Rojava, a Kurdish territory in Syria, the coffins entered framed by a guard of honour, greeted with tears and cries of “martyrs are eternal!” “.

Unable to enter the room where the bodies are exposed in the middle of funeral wreaths under a portrait of Abdullah Öcalan, the historic leader of the PKK imprisoned in Turkey, thousands of people followed the ceremony on giant screens installed in a parking lot.

“We’re here because it’s our duty, it’s a fight that our parents fought for many years and that we must continue,” Celik, a 30-year-old woman who has never had a child, told AFP. did not want his surname to be cited for security reasons. “We have the impression that they are doing everything to crush us, whether here or in Turkey”, regretted this resident of Villiers-le-Bel, who came to the funeral with the family.

A white march on rue d’Enghien

Kurds traveled from all over France and even from European countries to attend these funerals, coming with buses specially chartered by the community. The organizers have set up a large security service, in addition to the security forces deployed outside. The three deceased were shot dead on December 23 in front of the Ahmet-Kaya cultural center on rue d’Enghien.

A white march will also be held on Wednesday rue d’Enghien on the scene of the tragedy at the end of December. And a “great march” of the Kurdish community, initially planned for the tenth anniversary of the death of PKK militants, will leave Saturday from the Gare du Nord in Paris.

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