The red coat open, the pistol in the right hand. His only purpose: to kill people. A Frenchman (69) stormed into a hair salon in Paris on Friday. Surveillance camera footage documents the killer’s cold-bloodedness. Before he could fire any more, the officers managed to overpower him. In doing so, he killed three people and injured three others. All victims are Kurds.
French justice launched an official investigation against the 69-year-old on Monday and ordered him to be taken into custody. Murder and attempted murder based on race, ethnicity, nationality or religion, and the illegal acquisition and possession of firearms are under investigation by the judiciary, according to sources.
According to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, he said he intended to use up all his ammunition “and kill himself with the last cartridge”.
The perpetrators specifically wanted to kill foreigners
The prosecutor described the man as “depressed” and “suicidal”. Since his burglary in 2016, the man has “always had a desire to kill migrants, foreigners,” she explained.
On the morning of the crime, the Frenchman, who had already been targeted by justice in 2021 for violence against migrants, first drove to Saint-Denis to kill “foreigners” there. According to his own statements, he feels a “pathological hatred” towards them, Beccuau said on Sunday.
However, he gave up on his plans because not much was going on in Saint-Denis and his clothes prevented him from easily reloading his rifle. After returning to his parents’ apartment in Paris, he decided to drive to the Kurdish quarter, where he ended up killing three people.
Already in 2013 there were deaths in the Kurdish quarter in Paris
The man explained his anger at Kurds by saying that Kurdish fighters were “taking prisoners instead of killing them” in their fight against the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS).
Hundreds gathered in Paris on Monday for a memorial march for those who died on the spot. People set up little memorials on the sidewalk, laid flowers, put up pictures of those shots and candles. Among other things, the demonstrators chanted “Our martyrs will not die” in Kurdish and called for “truth and justice” in French, a journalist from the AFP news agency reported.
Kurdish activists in France blamed the Turkish government for the violence. Shortly after the crime, the Kurdish association CDK-F accused the Turkish state and its president of being responsible for the crime.
“Anti-Turkish propaganda” at protests?
In 2013, three Kurdish PKK activists were murdered in the same Parisian district. Many Kurds are angry with the French security forces for not doing enough to prevent acts of violence.
Anger over the latest incident erupted into riots on Saturday. There were clashes with the security forces on the margins of a peaceful memorial demonstration of several hundred people.
In response to the protests, the Turkish government summoned the French ambassador on Monday. Ankara protested that, according to diplomatic sources, the French authorities had not done enough to counter “anti-Turkish propaganda”.
Kurds protest in Syria
“We expressed our dissatisfaction with the propaganda launched against our country by PKK circles and with the use of the French government and some politicians as a propaganda tool,” Ankara said.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey and most Western countries, including the US and the EU.
There were also protests in Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria following the violence in Paris. Hundreds of Syrian Kurds demonstrated in the northern city of Hasakeh on Sunday after a call from the semi-autonomous Kurdish authorities. (AFP/nad)