Turkey’s HDP condemns attack on Kurdish community in Paris

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) condemned the latest attack that killed three people at a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby Kurdish cafe in French capital Paris.

A gunman on Dec. 23 killed three people, who were all Kurdish, at Ahmet Kaya Kurdish Cultural Center on Rue d’Enghien, according to reporting by Reuters.

French President Emmanuel Macron said France’s Kurdish community had been the target of a heinous attack. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the suspected assailant had clearly wanted to target foreigners.

HDP’s Europe branch said on Twitter that they “can guess who is the instigators of this deadly attack.”

The party called for solidarity with Kurdish people in Europe.

Jailed former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş also condemned the attack and said “It is the responsibility of the French authorities to uncover all aspects of the attack,” in Turkish and French languages.

French authorities said they had arrested a 69-year-old man, who Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said had recently been freed from detention while awaiting trial for a sabre attack on a migrant camp in Paris a year ago. He was convicted in June of committing violent acts with a weapon in 2016, and had lodged an appeal.

Salih Azad, a prominent figure from the Kurdish community in Marseille, said he knew one of the victims, a 26-year-old woman who had lived in Paris for several years.

“She was well integrated socially and culturally,” he said.