The demonstrators accuse the Turkish secret service of MIT and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of being behind this assassination, which took place in 2013, in Paris.
Le Monde avec AFP
They have been calling for justice for eight years in a never-tried case. Several thousand people marched, Saturday, January 9, in different French cities, to pay tribute to three Kurdish activists murdered in 2013 in the middle of Paris. In the capital, the procession set off in peace, behind large banners bearing the effigy of the three women, from the Gare du Nord to the Place de la République.
Sakine Cansiz, 54, one of the founders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Fidan Dogan, 28, and Leyla Saylemez, 24, were killed on January 9, 2013 by several bullets in the head. Protesters accuse the Turkish MIT secret service and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of being behind the assassination.
“Terrorist Erdogan!”, “Stop Erdogan!”, Launched in particular the crowd, in which were also feminist activists and several elected left.
“As long as there is no justice , we will demonstrate “
” We denounce a political assassination and also a feminicide. Erdogan and his little clique have come to clean up and they try to make us forget this unacceptable crime which happened in France ” , says Yekbun Eksen, member of the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F) and organizer of the Paris demonstration.
“We come here to pay tribute to innocent women who acted for freedom and the cause Kurdish “, abounds in the procession Celik Birhat, a 19-year-old law student. “As long as there is no justice, we will demonstrate”, adds Diyar Dogan, who comes every year to demonstrate.
Other demonstrations were taking place simultaneously in several French cities to demand the “end of impunity for these political crimes”: 150 people in Bordeaux according to the police, 180 in Strasbourg according to the prefecture and around 250 in Marseille.
“Today, the Kurdish people also see that France does not raise its voice too high” and “does not have a firm and clear position” on this issue, said Yasine, spokesperson for the Kurdish community center in Bordeaux, who did not wish to communicate his last name.
Open investigation
On Wednesday, a white march had already been organized in Paris, in tribute to the three women. The investigation in France had pointed to the “involvement” of members of the Turkish secret services in this triple assassination, without naming any sponsors.