Remzi Kartal, co-chairman of Kongra-Gel, the highest-ranked Kurdish diplomatic entity in Europe, received an administrative ban from French Interior Minister Gérard Darmanin to gain entry into French territory. Darmanin explains it as follows: “you pose a serious threat to public order and internal security of France.”
Remzi Kartal, political refugee and good friend of the Kurdish Institute, would therefore be a dangerous terrorist in the eyes of the French ministry. (?)
The French minister accuses Remzi Kartal of taking part in a meeting at the Kurdish Democratic Center of Bordeaux on July 19, 2020, where he paid tribute to two killed fighters and stated that these fighters had “given moral hope to the Kurdish people”. Apparently, such statements are sufficient for Mr Darmanin to issue a “ban on entry and stay on French territory”.
This is just too crazy for words! It becomes quite obvious that there is a powerful Turkish lobby behind this, whose influence on the French political class is no longer in doubt. In the recent past, lawyers have had to conclude that the French ministry consciously turned a blind eye to attacks on Kurdish activists that were clearly commissioned by the Turkish intelligence service. Just think of the attack and murder of 3 Kurdish women in Paris in 2013. A Turkish general confessed years later in an interview for a Turkish TV channel that this murder was a Turkish state operation.
This new incident is a scandal for France! Because, for years Remzi Kartal has been committed to achieving a just and lasting peace in Turkey and the Kurdish region through diplomatic negotiations.
For those who would like to know more about Remzi Kartal, his democratic views and the “French incident”, we refer to the article on the portal of Amitiés kurdes de Bretagne.
