Presidential spokesperson Kalın: PKK is in France
ISTANBUL – PARIS
A top aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday blamed street unrest that gripped Paris following the killing of three people linked to PKK terrorist organization.
“This is PKK in France,” Erdoğan’s foreign policy adviser and presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın tweeted, posting images of overturned and burning cars in Paris.
“The same terrorist organization you support in Syria,” he wrote in apparent reference to the YPG.
“The same PKK that has killed thousands of Turks, Kurds and security forces over the last 40 years. Now they are burning the streets of Paris. Will you still remain silent?” Kalın wrote.
The street protest broke out after a 69-year-old white French gunman opened fire at the Ahmet Kaya Cultural Center in Paris, killing three.
The shots at the cultural center and a nearby hairdressing salon on Dec. 23 sparked panic in the city’s bustling 10th district, home to several shops and.
Thousands of protesters, including PKK supporters, gathered at Place de la Republique in central Paris on Dec. 24 afternoon.
Police fired tear gas after clashes erupted and the demonstrators threw projectiles at officers. At least four cars were overturned and one burnt.
Over 1,000 people held a similar rally in the southern port city of Marseille that ended in clashes with officers and at least two police cars were set on fire.
A source close to the case told AFP that the gunman admitted to investigators that he was racist.
Prosecutors said the white suspect had been removed from custody for health reasons on Dec. 24 and taken to a police psychiatric facility.
The Paris prosecutor said a doctor examined the suspect’s health and deemed it “not compatible with the measure of custody.”
The suspect, who has a history of racist violence, initially targeted the cultural center before entering a hairdressing salon where he was arrested.
He was found with a case loaded with a box of at least 25 cartridges and “two or three loaded magazines,” the source close to the case said.
The weapon was a “much-used” U.S. Army Colt 1911 pistol.