Call for an internationalist bloc for the demonstration in Paris – Against fascism, for justice: internationalist answer
03.01.2025
On January 9, 2013, and December 23, 2022, two attacks struck the heart of Paris. Twice, three Kurdish activists were brutally murdered. On January 9, Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan, and Leyla Saylemez fell victim to a triple femicide carried out by an infiltrated agent of the MIT (Turkish secret services). Nearly ten years later, Evîn Goyî, Mîr Perwer, and Abdurrahman Kizil were assassinated at the Ahmet Kaya Kurdish Cultural Center.
Sakine Cansiz (Sara), alongside Abdullah Öcalan, was one of the seven founding members of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a Kurdish national liberation movement). She was instrumental in establishing the Kurdish women’s army (YJA-Star) and endured torture in Turkish prisons. Fidan Dogan (Rojbîn), a diplomat of the CDK-F (Democratic Kurdish Council in France), was in regular contact with French leftist organizations as well as the French state itself. Leyla Saylemez (Ronahî) was a young activist organized within the youth branch. Like Sakine Cansiz, Evîn Goyî was a pioneer of the women’s revolution. She fought across all four parts of Kurdistan and was injured in Rojava. Mîr Perwer, a renowned singer, had sought refuge in France to sing in his native language. Abdurrahman Kizil had found refuge in the country after fleeing his village, attacked by the Turkish colonial army.
We are fully aware that the Turkish fascist state, through its MIT secret services, is responsible for these two attacks. Investigative journalists have established MIT’s responsibility in the 2013 triple femicide, and many elements strongly suggest at least an inciting role in the 2022 attack. Since then, several assassination attempts or planned actions by the MIT targeting journalists, activists, politicians (including former Kurdish MPs), or Turkish dissidents in exile have been foiled on European soil.
However, in most cases, these actions and intimidations occur with the complicity of Western imperialist states, which consistently conceal or minimize Turkey’s responsibility. This includes successive French governments, which maintain “defense secrecy” over evidence necessary for the judicial investigation into the 2013 triple assassination and refuse to cooperate with Belgian police regarding activities of several men suspected of assassination attempts in Brussels.
While numerous Turkish intelligence agents and informants operate freely on French soil, Kurdish activists are harassed by the authorities and used as bargaining chips with Turkey. A recent investigation by Marianne magazine revealed this dynamic. In 2024 alone, three Kurdish activists were expelled to Turkey, two of whom remain imprisoned there today. Two other activists were placed in detention centers after their political refugee status was revoked. Their expulsions were only prevented through legal actions taken by their lawyers.
At the same time, the French state continues to collaborate with Turkey, maintaining trade and economic relations, and supplying arms and equipment to the Turkish army despite blatant human rights violations in Turkey and the areas it occupies in Syria. The Turkish regime continues to suppress every voice of dissent, seizes Kurdish municipalities, carries out mass imprisonments, and enforces isolation on numerous political prisoners. For example, there was no news of Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned on an island since 1999, for over the last 44 months until his recent message in October. These inhumane, torturous practices have never been condemned by France, which also keeps Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese communist militant for the Palestinian cause, imprisoned since 1987, despite his eligibility for release since 20 years.
This French collaboration also persists in the face of Turkey’s numerous violations of international law and war crimes through bombings and drone strikes in Iraq and Syria. These attacks target not only PKK guerrilla bases—exercising their legitimate right of armed resistance against colonialism—but also numerous civilian infrastructures and homes. Dozens of villages have been forcibly evacuated by the Turkish army during its attempted invasion of the mountains of Southern Kurdistan (Iraq), while in Rojava, hundreds of thousands of people have been left without electricity, heating, or cooking gas due to the destruction of energy infrastructure. This French collaboration does not surprise us, however. France’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza has destroyed any credibility it may have had regarding human rights and reveals the true face of imperialism: it is willing to sacrifice entire peoples and the
very rules it has established to defend its allies. In the face of this unity among imperialists, it is imperative to build an internationalist and antifascist struggle. For this reason, we invite all political, trade union and associative forces who recognize themselves in this call to mobilize on January 11, 2025, in Paris to join us in forming an internationalist bloc during the demonstration for the six Kurdish comrades assassinated in Paris.
For Sara, Rojbîn, and Ronahî, we cry “Jin Jiyan Azadî!”For Evîn, Mîr, and Abdurrahman, we demand Truth and Justice!For all, we proclaim: “Long live the resistance of the Kurdish people, the Palestinian people, and all the oppressed!”
Young Struggle & Jeunesse Internationaliste, Serhildan Network & Riseup4Rojava