BONNEUIL-SUR-MARNE, France — Denis Öztorun, mayor of Bonneuil-sur-Marne, has announced that he will file a formal complaint after a municipal invitation for the inauguration of a park named in honor of Armenian Resistance figures Mélinée and Missak Manouchian was defaced with racist, homophobic and anti-Muslim insults.
Öztorun said photographs of the vandalized invitation had been circulated publicly. According to the mayor, the messages targeted his Turkish origins, attributed a religion to him, attacked a planned Muslim place of worship in the city and repeated allegations concerning excessive urban development in Bonneuil.
“The issue is neither the right nor the left. It is the Republic,” Öztorun said in a lengthy public statement, adding that the most offensive language had been obscured in the images to avoid amplifying the abuse.
The mayor said the incident was not isolated, describing what he characterized as several years of anonymous leaflets, posters, rumors about his health, attacks concerning his origins and threats directed at his family and home.
Öztorun, who said he arrived in France at age 13 without speaking French, reflected on his experience as an immigrant and his attachment to the French Republic and its public education system.
“I chose to become French. That choice does not erase my history; it commits me,” he said. “I am not tired of being French. I am tired of still having to prove that I am.”
Öztorun also recalled threats against his home and family during riots in France, saying he remained in Bonneuil with elected officials and municipal employees to protect public facilities and maintain order. He stressed that, as mayor, he has sought to protect residents regardless of their religious beliefs.
He cited his presence following incidents involving a church and a synagogue, as well as an episode during an Eid prayer gathering attended by more than 2,000 people, when an armed man entered the gathering and was subdued and disarmed.
“I was not there as a representative of a religion,” Öztorun said. “I was there as a republican and secular mayor.”
The mayor said the municipality had fully renovated Bonneuil’s historic church, supported Jewish residents when they faced threats or concerns, and defended the right of Muslim residents to practice their religion with dignity and in accordance with French law. He noted that the proposed Muslim place of worship had been approved by the entire municipal council.
“We favor no religion. We discriminate against none,” he said, emphasizing that the Republic equally protects believers, atheists, agnostics and those with no religious affiliation.
Manouchian Connection Adds Symbolic Weight
Öztorun said the fact that the insults were written on an invitation honoring Mélinée and Missak Manouchian made the incident particularly troubling.
The Manouchians were Armenian refugees in France, and Missak Manouchian became a prominent member of the French Resistance during World War II. He and fellow members of his Resistance network, many of them immigrants and communists, fought Nazi occupation and were executed in 1944.
“Using my Turkish origins as an insult on a document dedicated to the Manouchians carries a particular historical violence,” Öztorun said. “To defile their names is to insult the Republic itself.”
He also rejected accusations of excessive construction in Bonneuil, pointing out that the invitation concerned the inauguration of a heavily landscaped park covering more than 35,000 square meters and noting that thousands of trees have been planted in the city in recent years.
Öztorun said Bonneuil is home to residents representing 82 nationalities, describing them not as competing communities but as “one city, one local people and one community of destiny.”
The mayor called on members of the municipal council, including both the majority and opposition, as well as democratic and republican political forces, associations, trade unions and residents, to participate in a “Rally for the Republic, Unity and Fraternity” on Sunday, September 6, at the Tree of Peace on Mail Salvador-Allende.
“This gathering will not belong to one man, one majority or one party,” Öztorun said. “It will be a republican act.”
He concluded by calling for a united response to racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, homophobia and other forms of discrimination.
“Faced with threats, we will respond with the law. Faced with racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, we will respond with fraternity. Faced with homophobia and all forms of discrimination, we will respond with equality. Faced with division, we will build what we share.”
