Sawt Falasteen - France remembers Charlie Hebdo attacks 10 years on

President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo led commemorations by laying wreaths at the site of the weekly's former offices, which were stormed by two masked Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen with AK-47 assault rifles.

Macron and Hidalgo also paid tribute to Ahmed Merabet, a Muslim police officer who was executed at point-blank range near the building in the Bastille area of the capital in one of the most shocking images recorded of the tragedy.

Twelve people died in the attacks, including eight editorial staff, while a separate but linked hostage-taking at a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris by a third gunman on January 9, 2015, claimed another four lives.

The bloodshed signalled the start of a dark period for France during which extremists inspired by Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group repeatedly mounted attacks that set the country on edge and raised religious tensions.

"Today is not necessarily sad," Frederica Wolinksi, the daughter of famed French cartoonist and Charlie Hebdo contributor Georges Wolinski. "It's good that 10 years later we can still remember those who died on 7 January so well."

A retrospective of Wolinski's work went on display at a Paris gallery at the end of last year in one of a host of media events, from new books to documentaries, to mark the anniversary.

Charlie Hebdo published a special edition this week featuring a defiant front-page cartoon with the caption "Indestructible!"

In a typically provocative move, the militantly atheist publication also organised a God-themed cartoon contest that invited submissions of the "funniest and meanest" caricatures of religious figures.

The attack on the newspaper by two Paris-born brothers of Algerian descent was said to be revenge for its decision to publish caricatures lampooning the Prophet Mohammed, Islam's most revered figure.

Germany "shares the pain of our French friends", German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on social media on Tuesday, adding that the "barbaric attack... targeted our common values of liberty and democracy -- which we will never accept".

- Cartoons -

The 10-year anniversary of the killings has led to fresh introspection in France about the nature of press freedom and the ability of publications such as Charlie Hebdo to blaspheme and ridicule religious figures, particularly Islamic ones.

The killings fuelled an outpouring of sympathy in France expressed in a wave of "Je Suis Charlie" ("I Am Charlie") solidarity, with many protestors brandishing pencils and pens and vowing not to be intimidated by religious fanatics.

"Are we all still Charlie?" public broadcaster France 2 will ask in a special debate programme on Tuesday evening.

"I couldn't miss today in order to tell them what I thought of them and of the values that Charlie defends, which are essential," Yannick Loue, 67, told AFP as he waited to pay a personal tribute at the offices.

"We're not many here though," he said, looking around at a crowd of several dozen who were waiting at a police barrier as Macron, other VIPs and the families of those killed attended the commemoration ceremony.

Noe Thibault, a 20-year-old student who lives in the area, was waiting to lay a bouquet of flowers.

He offered "unwavering and unconditional support" for Charlie Hebdo, even though he said he was only an occasional reader and "often in disagreement with their opinions and editorial line".

"I find it incredible that some French people don't think freedom of expression is the most fundamental of our freedoms," he said.

Both foreign and domestic critics of Charlie Hebdo are often puzzled by its crude humour and deliberately provocative cartoons that regularly incite controversy.

It has been accused of crossing the line into Islamophobia -- which it denies -- while its decision to repeatedly publish cartoons of Mohammed was seen by some as driving a wedge between the white French population and the country's large Muslim minority.

But a survey carried out by polling group Ifop and published in this week's Charlie Hebdo indicated widespread public support among French people for the freedom of expression to override concern for religious sensibilities.

A total of 76 percent of respondents believed freedom of expression and the freedom to caricature were fundamental rights, and 62 percent thought people had the right to mock religious beliefs.

Y.Zaher--SF-PST