Charlie Hebdo artists would have mocked the march

My wife Tansu and I were one of the earliest participants in the Paris march the other day and were therefore able to get right beside the statue in Republique Square.

The first thing that attracted my attention was this: The atmosphere was such that the immigrants climbed the platform of the sculpture before the French.

Of course, my first business was to check whether or not there was a Turkish flag. No, I was not able to see a Turkish flag about two hours before the rally started.

The weather was very cold; we wanted to have a hot drink, but all the cafes were completely full. Some of them had stopped taking customers. We were able to find a small place at a café with a lot of difficulty.

About one hour before the beginning of the march we wanted to walk toward the square, but the road was packed. We walked with difficulty.

A little later when I approached the square, the first thing I saw was that there was a person with a Turkish flag on the platform of the statue. Moreover, the person had added a French flag to the Turkish flag, waving both.

Right above it, I saw somebody else waving a flag; there was an Abdullah Öcalan portrait on that flag. A bit above that there was a Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) banner.

I understood that the platform of the sculpture was dominated by immigrants. While walking with the crowd, an African-French person and a white woman caught my eye in the building to my left. They put up a banner which read: ?I am Muslim but I am not a terrorist.? Suddenly, there was applause up and down the square. I have lived in France for six years and I have never seen such a scene.

One in every 15 marched

From the moment the march was over, every television...