Turkey summoned the French ambassador to lodge a protest against what it calls “anti-Turkey propaganda” by Kurdish activists during a march to mourn three people killed in a shooting at a Kurdish cultural centre in Paris.
On Monday, French Ambassador Herve Magro was summoned to the foreign ministry for allegedly failing to stop the “black propaganda” promoted by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)—an armed militant organisation designated as a terrorist by Ankara.
Turkey “expects France to act prudently over the incident and not to allow the [banned PKK] terrorist organisation to advance its sneaky agenda,” Anadolu Agency reported quoting diplomatic sources.
Turkey views PKK as an outlawed organisation that waged a four-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state, seeking autonomy for Kurdish areas of southeastern Turkey.
On Saturday, the Kurdish community in Paris and anti-racism activists together launched a demonstration of mourning a day after a Kurdish neighbourhood was targeted by a gunman who has admitted racist motivations.
Though the protest was largely peaceful, marchers were seen holding portraits of the victims, some youths threw objects and set light to cars, and police shot tear gas to disperse the crowd, AFP news agency reported.
The 69-year-old white French man was immediately arrested after killing three people at a Kurdish cultural centre in Paris. The suspect is said to have confessed to a “pathological” hatred for foreigners.
The violence has revived the trauma of three unresolved murders of Kurds in 2013 that many blame on Turkey.
“We decided to come as soon as we heard about Friday’s terrorist attack,” one young woman, who refused to share her name, told AFP.
Suspect charged with murder
Meanwhile, the French gunman has been charged with murder and remanded into custody, a judicial source told AFP news agency.
(With inputs from agencies)
