Thousands of Kurds from France and other European countries attended a memorial service in Villiers-le-Bel near Paris on Tuesday for three Kurdish activists who were shot dead in central Paris just before Christmas.

Many Kurds assume that the attack was controlled by the Turkish state, while French investigators have so far said it was a French racist.

The police were on site with a large contingent at the highly political funeral service.

Wrapped in flags of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the three coffins were brought through the crowd into a ceremonial hall, accompanied by weeping and shouts such as "The martyrs live forever!" Thousands of people followed the funeral service outside the hall on large screens, inside was a Image of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan imprisoned in Turkey.

“We are here because it is our duty.

Our parents have been fighting the fight for years, and we're continuing it," said Celik, who is around 30 years old, referring to the independence efforts of the Kurds, who live as a minority in Turkey, but also in Syria, northern Iraq and Iran.

A "morbid hatred of foreigners"

Kurds traveled to Villiers-le-Bel in special buses from several European countries to pay their last respects to Abdurrahman Kizil, the Kurdish singer Mir Perwer and Emine Kara.

The dead should later be transferred to their Kurdish homeland and buried there, said the France-based Kurdish association CDK-F.

The 69-year-old perpetrator was overpowered and arrested after the shots were fired shortly before Christmas near the Kurdish cultural center in Paris.

During his interrogation, he admitted to having a "pathological hatred of foreigners".

The French judiciary is investigating against him, among other things, for murder on racist grounds.

The terror prosecutor's office was not involved.

According to the public prosecutor's office, there is no evidence to date that the alleged perpetrator adheres to an extremist ideology.

The former train driver had only recently been released from custody for attacking migrants in a Paris camp with a saber in December 2021.

He injured two people and cut up several tents.

The trigger for his hatred is said to have been a burglary in his apartment in 2016.

Many Kurds see a connection to the triple murder ten years ago

Representatives of the Kurdish community criticize that the judiciary does not classify the case as an act of terrorism.

"The very fact that our union was the target shows the terrorist and political character," said Agit Polat, spokesman for the Kurdish association CDK-F in France.

He pointed out that the perpetrator could have been manipulated by fellow inmates during his almost one-year pre-trial detention.

Many Kurds also see a connection to the triple murder of Kurdish activists almost exactly ten years ago in the same Paris district.

At that time, a Turk was arrested who was suspected of having worked with the Turkish secret service.

He died in custody in 2016 before the trial.

At the time of the latest crime, a large-scale demonstration was being planned in the Kurdish center in the tenth arrondissement of Paris to mark the tenth anniversary of the triple murder, which has not yet been fully clarified.

The memorial service for the December 23 victims was held at the same location as that of the three January 2013 victims.

Shortly after the crime, the Kurdish association CDK-F accused the Turkish state and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of being responsible for the murders.

The Turkish government then summoned the French ambassador to protest that French authorities had not done enough to stop "anti-Turkish propaganda".