Truth and justice!

Eleven years have passed since comrades Sakine Cansız (Sara), Fidan Doğan (Rojbîn) and Leyla Şaylemez (Ronahî) were murdered in cold blood by a Turkish secret service agent on January 9, 2013. Sara, founder of the PKK, tireless resistance fighter in prison and emblematic figure of the women’s movement; Rojbîn, responsible for the Kurdish movement’s diplomacy in France, organizer of international solidarity; Ronahî, activist of the youth movement, who became a symbol of young women’s insubordination to colonial rule. There is no doubt that this bloody act was ordered by Turkish dictator Reccep Tayip Erdoğan. The assassin, Ömer Güney, acted under the direct instructions of senior members of the Turkish government and its intelligence apparatus, as evidenced by an audio recording of a conversation between the assassin and MIT agents, as well as notes from these same services. Yet neither the French justice system nor any of the responsible European institutions have shed any light on this dark crime. In 2016, with Güney’s death in prison, a few weeks before the start of the trial, the case was buried and the real perpetrators remain unpunished to this day.

Ten years after these terrible murders, on December 23, 2022, the headquarters of the Kurdish association Ahmet Kaya in Paris was the target of a terrorist attack. Among the victims were Emine Kara (Evîn Goyî), a leader of the Kurdish Women’s Movement; the young Kurdish singer Mîr Perwer, who had been forced to take refuge in France following a prison sentence handed down by the Turkish judiciary for his commitment to Kurdish culture; and Abdurahman Kizil, a Kurdish activist in his sixties who regularly attended the association. Three other people were injured in the attack. The description of this despicable act, committed by William Malet, a racist 60-year-old, as a “shooting” is deeply shocking, as it represents the French state’s double standards when it comes to the classification as an “attack”. The police have left many questions unanswered, even though many elements point to the idea of a commissioned and political action.

These two triple murders in the heart of Paris are concerted attacks against the ideological line of women’s liberation and the entire liberation movement in Kurdistan. The massacre of comrades Sara, Rojbin, Ronahî and Evîn must be understood as the reaction of the system of male domination against the self-organization of women in the revolutionary struggle, and is added to the long list of political feminicides committed against Kurdish women and activists.

They also echo the imperialist past and present of France and Paris, the capital of political assassinations of anti-colonial activists: most recently, it was Nadarajah Mathinthiran, leader of the Tamil Tigers, who was killed there on November 9, 2012. But also South African anti-apartheid activist Dulcie September on March 29, 1988, and Palestinian PFLP activist Basil al Kubaisi on April 6, 1973. Mehdi Ben Barka, a Moroccan socialist opponent of King Hassan II and an up-and-coming Tricontinental figure, was kidnapped and disappeared on October 29, 1965.

The political organization of the colonies, the global South and the diaspora is always seen as a danger by the French state. It reveals its hypocrisy by always preferring to preserve its economic and political interests, using the rhetoric of “terrorism” and denying activists the protection of asylum. This even when, as in the case of Evîn and others, they have been fighting the same war being waged by French special forces within the International Coalition against Daech.

For all these reasons, we are responding to the call from the Kurdish Democratic Center of France and calling on all organizations and activists to take a resolute internationalist stance and denounce Turkish fascism, the silence of the French government and the political feminicides against those leading the women’s revolution.

We invite all solidarity structures, political organizations, trade unions and associations to join us in an internationalist bloc that will be animated at the end of the demonstration.

For Sara, Rojbîn and Ronahî,

For Evîn, Mîr and Abdurahman,

For truth & justice,

So that the tenderness of peoples never goes unheeded, and internationalism lives on:

Everyone in Paris on Saturday January 6!

RDV Gare du Nord, at 10am,
corner of rue de Compiègne and rue de Dunkerque.

The Serhildan internationalist network & Riseup4Rojava Network

To sign the appeal, take part or request information: [email protected]