The Kurdish Cultural Center in the French capital Paris was targeted by an armed attack in broad daylight on Friday.

According to eyewitnesses, an armed assailant opened fire on the Kurdish Cultural Center before shooting at a restaurant and a hairdresser’s salon owned by the Kurds on the same street. While the attack has resulted in deaths and injuries, the assailant, reportedly 69 years old, has been arrested by the police.

KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Member Zübeyir Aydar spoke to ANF about the attack which he said was “cannot be treated as an ordinary attack”.

It is a version of the killings in 2013, said Aydar, referring to the triple murder of PKK founding member Sakine Cansız (Sara), KNK (Kurdistan National Congress) Paris Representative Fidan Doğan (Rojbîn) and Kurdish youth movement member Leyla Şaylemez (Ronahî) in Paris on 9 January 2013.

“We do not know who the assailant under arrest is, but it is obviously an Ankara-centered operation. It is an attack organized by MIT (Turkish intelligence service) and the counter-guerrilla,” Aydar stated.

“No matter who pulls the trigger, the power behind it is Ankara,” Aydar said, pointing to the information exposed in investigations with regard to the triple murder of Sakine, Fidan and Leyla and the suicide attempts against Kurdish officials in Belgium.

“With this investigation conducted for the past 10 years, not only us, but also lawyers and those running the investigation have seen the fact that the Turkish assassination teams in Europe are based in France.”

Aydar pointed out the responsibility of the French state, which has failed to take necessary measures, adding, “No measures were taken, and no assailants were brought to trial in the wake of the Paris killings. France bears responsibility because of its negligence and failure to take measures.”

According to Aydar, Friday’s attack shows how the Turkish state exported its attacks on northern Syria and northern Iraq to Europe. “They have expanded their attacks to a wide scope,” he added.

“We will take our measures and defend ourselves as a people accordingly. These attacks can intimidate neither us nor our people.”

Aydar urged the Kurdish people in Europe to express their reactions within a democratic frame, calling on all the Kurds in Paris to gather outside the association and claim those affected.