Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and a delegation with her visited the Ahmet Kaya Cultural Centre, which was the target of the 23 December armed attack, on Saturday, and expressed her condolences to the families of the three Kurdish activists who were victims of the attack.

During her meeting with the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F), Hildalgo pledged to support Kurds in their fight for truth and justice regarding the December 2022 attack as well as the January 2013 attack, in which three Kurdish female activists died.

“Paris will always stand by the Kurds who fought so bravely for our freedom. Let’s not forget that. They are at home here,” Hidalgo said on Twitter after the visit.

French authorities arrested a 69-year-old Frenchman, William M., as the main suspect of the December attack, while the Kurdish community in the country believe that the recent murders are connected to the assassinations of three Kurdish women 10 years ago, and that Turkey is behind both incidents.

On 9 January 2013, a Turkish intelligence-affiliated man shot dead three Kurdish women, Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founding member Sakine Cansız and activists Leyla Şaylemez and Fidan Doğan, in Paris. Their assassinations still remain unsolved and the gunman died in prison in 2016 before the start of his trial.