French protests once again reveal West's double-standard policy towards Iran riots

The latest wave of protests over the killing of three members of a Kurdish community in the French capital of Paris has once again highlighted the doubled-standard policy and the politically-motivated approach of the Western media regarding the recent foreign-backed riots in Iran.

The widespread protests in Paris erupted after gunmen carried out the killings at a Kurdish cultural center and nearby cafe on Friday in a busy part of Paris' 10th district.

Police arrested a 69-year-old suspect who the French authorities said had recently been freed from detention while awaiting trial for a sabre attack on a migrant camp in the capital a year earlier.

In response to the killings, the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F) called on its website and social media channels for a gathering from midday on Saturday at Republic square, a traditional venue for demonstrations in the city, which led to several hundred people assembling at the venue.

Brimming with fury, the protesters, holding flags and chanting slogans, became disruptive at one point, broke the street railings and set bins on fire, which led to clashes with police forces after they used tear gas and water cannons to scatter the indignant demonstrators.

Police said cars were overturned, at least one vehicle was burned, shop windows were damaged and small fires set ablaze near Republic Square, adding that there had been 11 arrests and around 30 minor injuries.

Later in the day, hundreds of Kurdish protesters, joined by politicians including the mayor of Paris' 10th district, listened to tributes to the victims of the deadly attack.

"We're angry because we have repeatedly sounded the alarm, the last time was just 20 days ago,” said Agit Polat, the spokesperson for the CDK-F. "We're angry because we have not been heard. We're angry because we are constantly being arrested; we are constantly being repressed by the French authorities."

Local media reports as well as witnesses said the French police spared no effort to quash the protests as they resorted to excessive use of force, in what was literally construed as a “heavy-handed crackdown” on dissent, a phrase that was vindictively and by mischief employed to refer to police containing the violent riots in Iran after the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the capital, Tehran.

While turning a blind eye to protests by French Kurds, Western media have over the past 100 days utilized such phrases as “suppression of peaceful protests” and “police quashing of anti-government demonstrations” in Iran in an exaggerative and hyperbolic fashion to alter the international media’s narrative about what is actually transpiring in the country.

Earlier in December, Iran's Interior Ministry said the enemy waged a hybrid war against the Islamic Republic to weaken national solidarity and hinder the country's progress, stressing that some 200 people lost their lives in the riots sparked by separatist and terrorist groups since September.

The ministry said the deceased include security forces, people killed in terrorist acts, innocent people who fell victim to the “false-flag killing project” by foreign-affiliated groups, rioters, and armed counterrevolutionary elements who were members of secessionist groups.

It also noted that the riots have inflicted trillions of rials in damage to state, public and private property.

Mahsa Amini died in hospital three days after she collapsed at a police station. An investigation attributed her death to her medical condition, dismissing allegations that she had been beaten by police forces.

In the past three months, and using the protests as a cover, rioters, and thugs — many of whom were later found to have links with foreign parties — have been on a rampage, engaging in savage attacks on security officers, vandalism, desecration of sanctities, and false-flag killings of civilians to incriminate the Iranian police.

The riots also set the scene for terrorist attacks across the country.

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