French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanan said today, Monday, that his country intends to ban the Turkish national "Gray Wolves" association, following diplomatic tensions between Paris and Ankara due to numerous files, the most recent of which is the conflict in the Nagorno Karabakh region and the insulting cartoons of the noble Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace.
During a session of the French National Assembly (parliament) on France's crackdown on hard-line Islamists, Darmanan said that a ban on "particularly aggressive" gray wolves would be referred to the French government on Wednesday.
The French minister's announcement comes in the context of strong diplomatic tensions between France and Turkey over the treatment of Muslims in France.
The finger of blame was pointed at this movement after the recent clashes between the Turkish and Armenian communities in Decin-Charpieu near Lyon (east).
Tensions between the two communities have been exacerbated by the conflict in the Nagorno Karabakh region between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is supported by Turkey.
On Wednesday evening, security forces in Decin-Charpieu intervened to prevent 250 members of the Turkish community from fighting a fight with the Armenians.
A few hours earlier, a fight between the two sides left 4 people injured, one of them in critical condition.
Also, the phrase "Gray Wolves" was written on a monument honoring the victims of the genocide and the National Center for Armenian Memory near Lyon on Saturday night, Sunday.
And demands were issued by some politicians and official circles to deport the Turks participating in those events, while those parties remained silent about the violence of the Armenian protesters.
The ban also comes as France clamps down on "hardline Islamists" after the killing of French teacher Samuel Patty last month.
A young man of Chechen origin (18 years), Bati, was slaughtered on October 16, after presenting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, in the classroom during a lesson on freedom of expression.
In the aftermath of Patty's death,
France banned an Islamic group bearing the name of the late Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).