MIDEAST-CRISIS/KURDS-ERDOGAN Kurds in Paris protest as Turkey's Erdogan meets Hollande

Record ID: 217767

  • Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/KURDS-ERDOGAN Kurds in Paris protest as Turkey's Erdogan meets Hollande
  • Date: 31st October 2014
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (OCTOBER 31, 2014) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS HOLDING BANNER READING (French): "Solidarity with the Kurdish resistance against Daesh (Islamic State)" PROTESTERS CHANTING MAN HOLDING SIGN READING (French): "Welcome the PYD (Democratic Union Party) not Erdogan" VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS (SOUNDBITE) (French) REPRESENTATIVE OF FEDERATION OF FRENCH KURDISH ASSOCIATIONS, MUR
  • Embargoed: 15th November 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABHF288L3MLZBE6QKQZQYNP9U2
  • Story Text: Members of Paris' Kurdish community gathered on Friday (October 31) to protest against Turkish president Erdogan's visit in France and Turkey's role in the ongoing crisis in Kobani.
    President Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Paris to meet with French president Francois Hollande to discuss important developments in Iraq and Syria and the current role of the coalition in the fight against the Islamic State.
    The protesters, gathered outside the French Foreign Ministry, united against Erdogan, saying that his approach to the Kobani crisis was deliberately oppressive to the Kurdish people.
    "I think that Erdogan has come to try to put pressure on France, to say: 'support me in my project of creating a buffer zone, support me in my fight against terrorism'. But when Turkey says 'my fight against terrorism', it's first and foremost the Kurds that they want to fight, not the Islamic State," said Murat Polat, a representative of French Kurdish Associations.
    Some protesters even held signs directly equating Turkey to Islamic State militants.
    Erdogan said after his meeting with the French president that he believed the international coalition was focusing too much on the Syrian town of Kobani near the Turkish border and should turn its attention to other areas.
    The town has been encircled by Islamic State fighters for more than a month and the battle to save it has become a test of the U.S.-led coalition's strategy for halting the radical Sunni Muslim group's advance.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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