Overturned cars, broken windows and clashes with police: Kurdish protest turns into riots in central Paris

Several thousand ethnic Kurds took to the streets and squares of the French capital, protesting the massacre motivated by racial hatred.

Yesterday, a 69-year-old man opened fire near a Kurdish cultural center, killing three and injuring several others.

At the scene of the tragedy, people gathered who began protests that escalated into clashes with the police.

Today, the protests have flared up with renewed vigor. Demonstrators burn street bollardschairs and tables of catering establishments, shop windows are beaten, cars are turned over.

The intensity of passions reached such peak levels that the mayor’s office decided to close several stations of the Paris subway.

Police officers trying to contain the angry mob made several arrests. Also, law enforcement officers have already reported significant damage to the property of the Parisians. They do not rule out that the crowd’s aggression was provoked by provocateurs who used Turkish symbols.

The Kurdish community, many of whose members demand independence, lives compactly today on the territory of four states – Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. And it is Ankara that is one of the main opponents of the independence of Kurdistan. After yesterday’s triple assassination, French Kurdish leaders said that Turkey is behind what happened in Paris.

One of the largest Kurdish diasporas in Western Europe lives in France: according to some estimates, there are 240,000 ethnic Kurds in the Fifth Republic.

The shooter, who turned himself in to police, was previously detained for attempting a similar crime: last year he attacked a group of Kurds with a saber in his hand. So far, no one can explain how the criminal was released so quickly.