The far-right Turkish organization "Grey Wolves" has been banned in France since November - but that does not deter the ultra-nationalists, whose parent party MHP is a coalition partner of Erdoğan's AKP in Turkey, from violent attacks on political dissidents. The latest incident occurred in Lyon where the Kurdish cultural center in the La Guillotière neighborhood was attacked by a group of fascists today. According to the umbrella organization CDK-F, about twenty masked people equipped with baseball bats and various other objects took part in the attack. According to the report, the four people who were in the association were beaten up "extremely brutally" and some of them were seriously injured.

Attacks on MIT directive

"These organized attacks by Grey Wolves on Kurds in France are not independent of the rapprochement between Emmanuel Macron and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan," the CDK-F said in an initial statement. It is already the second attack in Lyon in two weeks, it said and continued, "Kurdish society is targeted by Islamist-fascists from the Turkish spectrum. We believe that these attacks are carried out on the directives of the Turkish intelligence organization MIT and are intended to bring about chaotic conditions."

Armenians also targeted

The Armenian community in Lyon is also in the crosshairs of the so-called Grey Wolves. Shortly before the organization was banned from operating in France, a memorial to the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Décines-Charpieu had been daubed with pro-Turkish slogans. In addition to "RTE," the initials of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, "Loup Gris," the French name for the Grey Wolves, was also written on the building.

CDK-F: French government remains inactive

"Nevertheless, we must note that the French government remains inactive against this group that commits crimes against the Armenian and Kurdish community. We condemn this in the strongest terms. We call on the French Ministry of Interior and affiliated security agencies to immediately ensure the safety of our associations and members," said the umbrella organization CDK-F.

Addressing international civil society, the organization made an urgent appeal: "Today's incident shows that we are facing a serious threat. We just have to remember that already during the Paris killings on January 9, 2013, the French intelligence services made no effort to prevent this massacre."

On January 9 in 2013, an assassin from MIT had shot dead three Kurdish revolutionaries in France's capital, Sakine Cansız, Leyla Şaylemez and Fidan Doğan. To date, there has been no progress in the investigation against those responsible and the file is being treated as a state secret.

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