New demonstrations in Paris in solidarity with The Syrian Kurds
Hundreds of Kurds and supporters of their cause demonstrated in Paris on Saturday afternoon in support of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in the face of Turkey's aggression against their positions in northeastern Syria.
The French capital's security directorate estimated the number of demonstrators at 1,700, while organizers said the number of participants exceeded 5,000.
The demonstrators, who chanted "Defending Rojava", kurdish self-governing areas in northeastern Syria, waved YPG flags and banners demanding the release of Abdullah Ocalan, the historic leader of the imprisoned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) imprisoned in Turkey.
The demonstrators also carried banners in honor of "Heverin, the future and hope of Syria, which was executed by Turkey," referring to the Syrian politician Hfrin Khalaf, 35, who was liquidated according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights by Syrian fighters supporting Turkey in its attack on northeastern Syria.
Khalaf was secretary-general of the Future Syria Party and was also a member of the leadership of the Democratic Syria Council (SDF), the political arm of the SDF (Kurdish and Arab forces allied with Washington to fight ISIS).
The demonstrators also carried banners reading "Erdogan = ISIS" and "Women militants from Paris to Rog Ava".
The demonstrators chanted kurdish slogans, including "Women, Life, Freedom" and "Promoting Ava Resistance."
Turkey, which fears Kurdish autonomy near its border with a separatist tendency, is seeking to create a buffer zone of more than 440 km, the entire 30-km-wide Kurdish border control zone, to return a large part of its 3.6 million Syrian refugees.
On Thursday, Turkey agreed under an agreement signed by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to suspend its offensive against Kurdish fighters, demanding that the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) withdraw from the border area within five days.
On Saturday, thousands of Kurds demonstrated in Paris and several French cities to denounce Turkey's attack on the YPG.