Fifteen Kurds arrested in Paris

JOINT COOPERATION :  SOCIALIST FRANCE WITH ISLAMIST TURKEY

ANF, Paris 12.02.2013 : Fifteen Kurds have been taken into custody in the French cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse on Tuesday, French news agency AFP has reported. The operation was reportedly carried out in the scope of an investigation led by anti-terror prosecutor for alleged “attempt to fundraising to provide financial support to PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party)”. The investigation is said to have been launched in March 2012.

The operation against Kurds coincides with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s visit to France where he has met his counterpart  Laurant Fabius today. Many other earlier operations against Kurds living in France had similarly come before or after talks between Turkish and French authorities.

The security cooperation made by France and Turkey in October 2011 allows the police forces of both countries to carry out joint operations against Kurds. This cooperation not only leads to the arrest of hundreds of Kurds living in France but also promotes attacks on Kurdish associations in France and other European countries.

French authorities have yet shed no light on the execution of Sakine Cansız, a co-founder of the PKK, Fidan Doğan, representative of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) in Paris and Leyla Şaylemez, member of the Kurdish youth movement, in Paris on 9 January.

Around 250 Kurds have been taken into custody in France for political reasons since 2007, among them being Adem Uzun, member of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), who has been under arrest since his detention in Paris in October 2012. Despite all the reactions that French left-wing parties and non-governmental organizations have raised against the security agreement with Turkey, the ruling Socialist Party is maintaining the criminalization policies against Kurds first adopted by the Sarkozy government.