Turkish daily's Paris office attacked three times in six months
Zaman.com.tr
Daily Zaman's Cologne office was hit by a petrol bomb. AA photo
The Paris office of Turkish newspaper Zaman has been attacked three times in the last six months, the daily reported on its website today.The latest attack in Paris came yesterday after the Cologne office of the newspaper in Germany was also torched by suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Fifteen masked assailants entered the Zaman office in Paris at around 2:45 p.m. and threatened the staff while they vandalized the building, the report said. All the windows in the building were shattered while the entrance door was broken. Television sets, furniture and computers in the office were damaged as well.
The assailants escaped on foot. A group calling itself the "Euphrates Revenge Brigade," which is reported to have close links with the PKK, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Zaman said they asked for protection from the French police after the two previous attacks but said their requests were ignored.
The Turkish Embassy in Paris issued a written statement after Turkish Ambassador to Paris Tahsin Burcuoğlu visited the daily’s office, drawing attention to the alleged negligence of French law enforcement officers.
"The terrorist organization is encouraged by the fact that their crimes go unpunished. [Yesterday's] attack is an undisputed example of this," the statement said.
The Turkish Embassy called on French police departments to bring the culprits to justice as soon as possible.
French deputy Jean-Phillippe Maurer from the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) condemned the attack and said "the PKK's attacks could never be tolerated."
German police also detained two suspects yesterday linked to the torching of the Zaman office in Cologne.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
