France: Commemoration of 2015 Jihadist Attacks

On January 7, France commemorated the 10th anniversary of the jihadist terror attacks on the office of the satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo, as well as other terrorist attacks over the ensuing two days, including a Jewish kosher food store.

The below article by Paris Match is translated by Fousesquawk.

Video: Charlie Hebdo attack: Ten years after, France remembers

Caption: On Tuesday, France commemorated the deadly jihadist attack ten years ago against the satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo, which still defends freedom of expression loud and clear.

Editorial staff with Agence France Presse, video by William Smith

January 7, 2025 at 10:46. Updated January 8, 2025 at 12:30

On January 7, 2015, the Kouachi brothers, fighters of al Qaeda, attacked the editorial staff of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris,. Twelve people died in the Islamist attack.

On Tuesday, France commemorated the deadly jihadist attack ten years ago against the satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo, who still defends freedom of expression loud and clear.

The gleefully anarchist and anti-clerical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, was the target of jihadist threats since the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in 2006.

At the exact time of the attack at 11:30 (10:30 GMT) on rue Nicolas-Appert, where Charlie Hebdo was located in 2015, the victims’ families and numerous personalities gathered. Names of the victims were read, wreaths were laid, bells were rung for the dead, a minute of silence, the Marseillaise: The sequence was sober in a neighborhood blocked off by police.

Hands crossed, the director of Charlie Hebdo, Riss, seriously wounded on January 7, 2015, looked thoughtfully at the facade for a long time, a journalist with AFP noted.

President Emmanuel Macron, former head of state, Francois Hollande, in office at the time, the mayor of the capital, Anne Hidalgo, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, and several members or former members of the government were present.

“The sadness is the same, the emotion too,” Francois Molins, prosecutor of Paris at the time, stated on the France 2 channel. “The spirit of Charlie has never left me,” said Anne Hidalgo.

The head of state spent a few minutes with the families in the absence of the press.

“Total solidarity”

These ceremonies open a heavy memorial series, ten years after a series of jihadist attacks that hit France in 2015, notably with the November 13 attacks against the Bataclan  Hall, the outdoor cafes, and the Stadium of France.

From January 7-9, 2015, the brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly targeted Charlie Hebdo, police, and the Jewish community during “coordinated” attacks although responsibility was claimed by two distinct entities, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and the Islamic State organization, causing a total of 17 deaths.

Twelve people, including eight from the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo, lost their lives during the attack by the Kouachi brothers. After two days of being tracked, these two French nationals of Algerian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda, were shot and killed by an elite group of the gendarmerie in a printing house where they had hidden themselves.

Other Islamist attacks near Paris cost the life of a police officer the next day in Montrouge, then four people of the Jewish faith at a kosher store in Porte de Vincennes (Paris) on January 9.

Tuesday’s ceremonies continued on Boulevard Richard Lenoir, where police officer Ahmed Merabet was killed by the Kouachis during their flight. Then in front of the Hyper Kosher store, where the same ritual was repeated with the laying of wreaths and a minute of silence.

Near the store, Stars of David and the inscription, “Jew” were discovered Sunday and Monday on the buildings at Saint-Mande and Vincennes. The synagogue of Rouen, in northwest France, was the target of anti-Semitic tags between the end of December and the beginning of January.

“It has never ended,” and “the battle against this Islamist anti-Semitism continues,” reacted the president of Crif (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France), Yonathan Arfi. 

The rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Chems-eddine Hafiz, expressed Tuesday his “total solidarity” with the victims of the January 2015 attacks, which, “in no way can be justified by Islam,” in emphasizing his “unshakable attachment to freedom of expression”. 

Terrorism Memorial 

On Monday, Mr. Macron called for the continuation of the fight against terrorism without “respite”. 

On Tuesday, a source close to the case indicated that he wanted to maintain the project for a terrorism memorial, a place of homage to all the victims of terrorism in France and those threatened with abandonment abroad. 

Germany shares, “the pain of our French friends,” noted Chancellor Olaf Scholz on X, adding: “The barbaric attack targeted our common values of freedom and democracy-we will never accept that.”

The attack provoked worldwide emotion and gave birth to a slogan of support that remains famous: “I am Charlie”.

On January 11, 2025, demonstrations brought together nearly 4 million people across France with numerous heads of state and government in the Paris procession.

Charlie Hebdo , “embodies a fight for liberty,” Fabrice Nicolino, a member of the surviving staff on January 7, 2015, noted Tuesday on radio Franceinfo. And describing the editorial room today, protected by a large metal door, a series of double doors, a room teeming with cops, or even a panic room in case of attack.

For this sad anniversary, Charlie Hebdo is releasing a special issue with 32 pages, where on the front page, it reads, “indestructible”.

Alongside Charlie Hebdo in the kiosks, several French dailies are devoting their front pages to the 10th anniversary of the attack: “Liberty, liberty, Charlie!” headlines Liberation, while Le Figaro worries about seeing “France still under the Islamist threat.”

Source: http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2025/01/france-commemoration-of-2015-jihadist.html