In internet chatter, 67-year-old Stéphane Turk has mostly been portrayed as the good guy, a hard-working member of France’s “petit commerçant” or small businessman class, in despair at the failure of police and the courts to offer protection from hoodlums.
Antony Asli, the dead 19-year-old, was not only the bad guy, with a wretched record of criminality. On several online forums, contributors leapt to the conclusion that – because of his surname – he must have had Maghrebin roots, therefore fitting the easy stereotype that fuels countless conversations in France. Immigrants or their offspring equals crime.
But as details of both men have filtered out, the story has become less straightforward.
First, Mr Turk turned out not to be French at all by birth but to have origins in Lebanon.
Then Stéphane – the spelling initially assumed by French media to be correct – was amended to Stephan, the loss of the last letter making the name appear a little less French, a little less attractive as a candidate for anti-immigration far-right support.
Now, it has emerged that even this was an adopted first name. Mr Turk was not originally even Stephan but a Muslim who was born Mustapha Turk and, before making a new life on the French Riviera 30 years ago, worked as a pharmacist’s assistant in Beirut. There, after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, he was entrusted with an important role by Yasser Arafat, later to become first president of the Palestinian National Authority.
The French regional newspaper Nice-Matin has published what it discovered of Mr Turk’s “multiple lives” as part of a four-page review of l’affaire du bijoutier (the case of the jeweller).
In the same investigation, the newspaper’s reporters established that the dead robber, Asli, was not – as many racist comments on social networks had implied – of North African origin but the son of a gypsy mother and Lebanese-Corsican father. In fact, police officers in the Carros suburb of Nice where he grew up knew him as “the gypsy”.
From the comments of relatives and friends has evolved a picture of a lawless but often gentle young man, about to become the father of a child he would not live to see. To his elder sister, Alexandra, he had a mixture of “angels and demons in his head” but, despite his delinquency, did not deserve the manner of his death.
As became clear in the earliest stages of a police inquiry that leaves Mr Turk accused of voluntary homicide, Asli seems to have been posing no threat at the moment he was shot in the back on the morning of September 11. He was trying to escape with a haul of jewellery on a stolen scooter driven by an accomplice, who is still on the run more than a month later.
Mr Turk, who was not licensed to possess firearms, claims he never intended to kill Asli but initially fired only in the hope of bursting the scooter’s tyres so the fleeing robbers could be caught. The Nice public prosecutor says he is satisfiedMr Turk’s actions were deliberate at a time when he was no longer in danger, though the jeweller is also reported to have said his third and last shot was a reaction to the belief he was about to be fired on.
What Nice-Matin disclosed about the past life of Mr Turk does not cast him in a bad light, except perhaps in the eyes of Israelis and their supporters. It does show that he is no stranger to conflict, at least at a political level.
When Mr Turk was living in his native Lebanon, Arafat was chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. He became a loyal ally of the PLO chief and, after the Israeli invasion, led a small faction known as Ansar Sawra or companions of the revolution, according to Antoine Sfeir, a Lebanese-born French specialist on the Arab world and director of a quarterly publication, Les Cahiers de l’Orient (Notebook of the East).
Mr Sfeir said: “This was a small but important organisation made up of intellectuals and PLO supporters who attempted to resist the Israeli invasion. I had left Lebanon in 1976 but was back there as a journalist at that time and knew him then.”
Nice-Matin speculated that when Arafat was finally forced to leave the country, he was able to put to useful purpose his good relations with France to facilitate the political exile of a number of his friends, Mustapha Turk among them.
Mr Sfeir says he cannot confirm this, though Mr Turk had certainly been among the people who served the cause led by Arafat. He also had contacts of his own, as a member of a well-known family from the Beirut bourgeoisie.
Once settled in Nice, Mr Sfeir says, Mr Turk “completely abandoned politics and, to my knowledge, never set foot again in Lebanon”.
To this description, the eldest of Mr Turk’s four sons, Ahmed, has added the assertion that his father’s activities in Lebanon were entirely political, “not as a soldier”. Mr Sfeir accepts that this was the case.
In Nice, Mr Turk learned the jeweller’s trade and opened his small shop, La Turquoise, close to both the Notre-Dame basilica and the mosque where he worshipped.
As Christian Estrosi, the centre-right mayor of Nice, also an MP, has observed, he was well-liked and known for a willingness to do favours for other shopkeepers. He obtained French citizenship only four years ago after years of trying.
On the morning of September 11, he was opening up when the two young robbers burst in, assaulted him, ordered him to open his safe and ran off with jewellery valued at €30,000 (just under Dh150,000).
It was hardly a crime to rival the big jewellery heists that have been carried out in the nearby resort of Cannes. But it was not the first time Mr Turk’s shop had been targeted. He followed the pair as far as his doorway, dropped to his knees and opened fire as they rode off on a T-Max 500 scooter. Asli fell dying into the roadway.
Whether the jeweller’s actions amounted to legitimate self-defence, murder or something in between will be for a court to decide. The French president, Francois Hollande, aware of the wave of popular sympathy and in many cases open support for Mr Turk, says he understands the anger and exasperation of victims of crime while stressing: “It’s up to the justice system to deliver justice, and no one else.”
Mr Turk is on bail, fitted with an electronic tag and living under house arrest away from Nice. He is fighting an order preventing him from talking publicly, but his lawyer says the challenge is based purely on principle since he has resolved to say nothing further in any case.
Previously, after two days under arrest, he says that he regrets Asli’s death but had merely sought to defend himself. He also questions the role of Asli’s parents in the upbringing of a young man who, by 19, had 14 convictions for crimes including theft, criminal damage, receiving stolen goods and insulting behaviour.
Eric Bedos, the Nice prosecutor, rejects Mr Turk’s explanation. “It is my belief he shot with the intention of causing death,” he says. “When he fired, his life was no longer in danger.”
Choosing his words less formally, Asli’s father, Pascal, says his son was “shot like a pigeon”.
Mr Asli resents the suggestion that a lack of paternal discipline contributed to his son’s drift in criminality. His daughter, Alexandra, has described demonstrations in Nice in favour of Mr Turk as “scandalous and obscene”, adding: “ I do not forgive him. He shot a kid in the back. He’s a traitor, a coward, a murderer.”
But in the animated public and political debate that has continued in the weeks following the shooting, opinion has divided unevenly.
A Facebook group declaring support for Mr Turk has attracted 1.6 millions “likes”, its anonymous creator angrily denying any manipulation of figures. Another, denouncing support for “this criminal” as shameful, has received endorsements from only about 100 visitors.
As the Turk and Asli families await the outcome of the judicial process with opposing visions of justice, one online comment, signed F Delacroix, seems to sum up why so many ordinary French people refuse to condemn the jeweller who took the law so violently into his own hands.
“French law is not adapted to the new thug delinquency,” he writes. “Prisons are full and these ‘small delinquents’ are left in the streets with a naughty-naughty finger pointing. So they continue until they use their weapon or are shot like this case.
“Everybody is scared and frustrated as these small criminals are never punished by the law … France’s justice system is sick, resulting in the public admiring people taking justice into their hands.”
foreigndesk@thenational.ae
NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
Match info
Karnataka Tuskers 110-3
J Charles 35, M Pretorius 1-19, Z Khan 0-16
Deccan Gladiators 111-5 in 8.3 overs
K Pollard 45*, S Zadran 2-18
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
THE%20SPECS
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Company%20Profile
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
The%20specs
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
From exhibitions to the battlefield
In 2016, the Shaded Dome was awarded with the 'De Vernufteling' people's choice award, an annual prize by the Dutch Association of Consulting Engineers and the Royal Netherlands Society of Engineers for the most innovative project by a Dutch engineering firm.
It was assigned by the Dutch Ministry of Defence to modify the Shaded Dome to make it suitable for ballistic protection. Royal HaskoningDHV, one of the companies which designed the dome, is an independent international engineering and project management consultancy, leading the way in sustainable development and innovation.
It is driving positive change through innovation and technology, helping use resources more efficiently.
It aims to minimise the impact on the environment by leading by example in its projects in sustainable development and innovation, to become part of the solution to a more sustainable society now and into the future.
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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The story of Edge
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, established Edge in 2019.
It brought together 25 state-owned and independent companies specialising in weapons systems, cyber protection and electronic warfare.
Edge has an annual revenue of $5 billion and employs more than 12,000 people.
Some of the companies include Nimr, a maker of armoured vehicles, Caracal, which manufactures guns and ammunitions company, Lahab
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
