Hundreds demonstrate in Paris to protest Friday's shooting at a Kurdish cultural center

The organizers end the demonstration ahead of schedule due to clashes with the Police

MADRID, 24 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Hundreds of people have gathered this Saturday in the Place de la République in the French capital, Paris, to protest the shooting recorded on Friday by an armed man in a Kurdish cultural center and which resulted in the death of three people.

The rally, organized by the Kurdish Democratic Council (CDK) - which brings together twenty-four associations of the Kurdish diaspora throughout France - seeks to express their rejection of the attack against those they defined as "Kurdish militants", although there is still no information official information on the identity of the deceased.

During the demonstration, numerous red flags of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were observed, other purple ones in memory of three Kurdish women assassinated in 2013 also in Paris, and other yellow flags with the face of the Kurdistan leader, Abdullah Ocalan, according to the BFM TV chain.

Likewise, the headquarters of the City Council of the 10th district of Paris, the area of ​​the capital where the shooting occurred, has removed the French flag from its facade and instead has raised the Kurdish banner "in tribute to the victims."

In fact, the mayoress of the 10th arrondissement, Alexandra Cordebard, has assured on her Twitter profile that the corporation is "together with the Kurds of France", and they are paying tribute this Saturday to the victims of the "racist attack perpetrated on rue Enghien" .

Although the concentration has developed peacefully, after 1:00 p.m. there have been clashes in the vicinity of the Plaza de la República between protesters and police officers.

According to BFM TV, some protesters have attacked security agents with small projectiles, and have even thrown street furniture. The police, for their part, have responded with the use of tear gas.

However, the tension of some attendees with the Police has not been shared by the protesters as a whole, who have even come to stand between one another, forming a human chain also made up of members of the Kurdish Democratic Council.

After this episode of violence, the organizers of the demonstration have decided to end the concentration ahead of schedule. The march had to advance towards the Bastille, an area where there have been clashes.

From the Kurdish Democratic Council they have denounced that tempers have caught fire when a group of "provocateurs" has gone aboard a car next to the demonstration and showing the Turkish flag through the windows and making the gesture of the Gray Wolves.

Gray Wolves is a Turkish ultranationalist racist organization and extremely hostile to the Kurdish community. The French authorities ordered its dissolution in 2020, considering it an extreme right-wing organization. His kindred make a hand gesture by raising the index and little fingers and bringing the rest of the fingers together.

Subsequently, a large part of the attendees have returned to Enghien street to continue, again in a calm atmosphere, with the tributes to the deceased, as planned before the small disturbances.

After 3:00 p.m., the Plaza de la República had already returned to normality and there were hardly any protesters present, although the important police force was still deployed.

A man in his 70s opened fire at a Kurdish cultural center in Paris on Friday, killing three people and wounding three others. The French authorities soon came to terms with what happened to show their total rejection of what the president himself, Emmanuel Macron, defined as a "hateful" attack against the Kurds in France.

Already on Friday night there were some clashes between civilians protesting the event and police officers. The French authorities have estimated this Saturday at twelve injured agents.