Chanting “Kobané resistance,” thousands of people have again demonstrated Saturday in France, particularly in Paris, in support of the Kurdish city in northern Syria attacked by jihadist group Islamic State (EI).
Gathered Republic Square in the center of the capital, the protesters – 6,000 according to organizers, 5,000 according to police – then walked to Bastille, behind a banner asking, “What are you waiting for action I need regular. Another massacre? “.
“Kobané stand, the people will win”, “Daesh (another name for IR) No pasardn” could also read several placards.
Many red flags of the Workers Party of Kurdistan (PKK) were brandished by the demonstrators, who stepped slogans against Turkey, “accomplice” in their jihadist of IE.
“We urge the international community to stop their inaction and failure, which appear hypocritical in the long,” he told AFP Yekbun Eksen, representative of the Democratic National Coordination of Kurds in France, at the initiative of the gathering.
Denouncing “gruesome calculations Turkey,” member of the international coalition against IE but refuses to join the Kurds of Syria to rescue Kobané Mr. Eksen asked “to let the volunteers take up arms.”
“How can we let our brothers and sisters are being slaughtered?” Lamented Canan Seyhan, a Kurdish nurse 35 years based in Paris, “disgusted by the lack of support from Turkey.”
– “Armenian Presence” –
Several celebrities including Olivier Besancenot Pierre Laurent spoke, urging the French government to protect the Kurdish people against the jihadists of IE. Also note the presence of representatives of the Armenian community including Alexis Govciyan (Chairman of the 2015 mission CFC) filmmaker Robert Kéchichian. Ara Toranian, Co CCAF and Antoine Bagdikian, President of the Armenian Institute of France spoke at the finish of the event to expose the duplicity of Turkey against jihadists and affirm solidarity with Armenians Kurdish resistance. Daniel Augustus, association support Assyrian-Chaldeans also intervened in this direction.
“France must stop his agitation game with Turkey and make it clear that it supports,” said the national secretary of the PCF Pierre Laurent, demanding “the removal of the PKK terrorist organization.”
– “Game disorder” –
In Lyon, 200 to 300 people marched through the city center to “condemn the hypocrisy of Western countries, including France, against the Kurds Kobané” according Dersini Azad, spokesperson of the “support committee the resistor Kobané “.
The protesters carried flags of Kurdistan or the effigy of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. Among the claims set out in the leaflets: delivery of weapons to the Kurdish resistance or withdrawal of the PKK terrorist organization in the European Union.
In Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), the event was attended by 600 people. A man, 26, outside the event, with a long knife and brass knuckles, was arrested and taken into custody. Earlier police used tear gas to prevent early skirmish between demonstrators and a man in a car, which had perhaps caused, police said.
Friday night, about 400 demonstrators gathered in Bordeaux and Bayonne to a hundred.
The pro-Kurdish demonstrations increased since mid-September on Advanced Kobané jihadist AR. These strengthened their hold on Saturday much of the city desperately defended by Kurdish forces less able, the UN expressing concern for the lives of thousands of civilians.
More than 20,000 people have also demonstrated Saturday in Dusseldorf, Germany, a country whose Kurdish community is considered the largest in Europe, followed by France.
Photos Robert Kéchichian