A senior Turkish government adviser has blamed the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for the riots in Paris. After three Kurds were shot dead, several protesters clashed with security forces on Saturday. According to the authorities, 32 people were slightly injured, mostly police officers.
Eleven people were arrested. A peaceful demonstration was originally planned to commemorate the victims of Friday’s attack. The PKK was responsible for the riots, said Ibrahim Kalin, foreign policy adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “This is the PKK,” he captioned a video of overturned and burning cars on Twitter. “The same terrorist organization you support in Syria. Will you shut up?” he added, probably referring to the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG.
The PKK has been fighting for more rights for Kurds in Turkey and against the state since the mid-1980s. It has been repeatedly blamed for attacks in Turkey in the past and is classified as a terrorist organization by most Western countries. The YPG militia, on the other hand, is not classified as a terrorist organization by the US and the EU, which has drawn criticism from Turkey.
Dead were Turkish citizens
The background to the demonstration was Friday when shots were fired at a Kurdish community center in the tenth arrondissement of Paris. As reported, a 69-year-old had killed three people and injured three others. According to prosecutors, five of the six victims have Turkish nationality and the sixth has French nationality. Two more injured people are in hospital on Sunday.
Perpetrator wanted to commit suicide
The alleged perpetrator was arrested and taken to a psychiatric ward. He had described himself as depressed and suicidal. According to the prosecutor’s office, he targeted all migrants and attacked people he did not know. He had something against the Kurds for “taking prisoners instead of killing them in their fight against the Islamic State terrorist militia.” Originally, the man wanted to use more ammunition and kill himself with the last shot.
Source: Krone
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