Arras paid a vibrant tribute this Sunday to Professor Dominique Bernard, one year to the day after his assassination by a radicalized Islamist ex-student.
“We are still incomprehensible,” declared Mayor Frédéric Leturque during his speech.
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Knife attack in Arras: a teacher killed
“Long live school, long live life, long live the Republic and long live France.” It was by quoting the author Saint-Exupéry that the mayor of Arras (Pas-de-Calais), Frédéric Leturque, concluded his speech this Sunday during the tribute ceremony to Professor Dominique Bernard, one year to the day for day after his assassination by a radicalized Islamist ex-student.
“A year ago, the Carnot Gambetta school complex experienced the horror of an unexpected violence which, in addition to taking the life of a man, a history teacher, a literature teacher, struck his path other men and other women physically injured for some, David, Jacques, Christian, psychologically affected for others (…) A year ago, the city of Arras fell into horror, and joined the list of these municipalities hit by an attack”, notably recalled the elected official during this speech.
“This October 13, we reaffirm our strength and our unity against all barbarism and violence. We also have a thought for Samuel Paty who was assassinated,” Frédéric Leturque also declared. “A year later, we are together, still standing. Culture is for us the strongest weapon and school is an ideal to protect. France is beautiful when it is united and brings the values of ‘equality, liberty, fraternity’, he continued, before adding: “We owed it to him to be there. We are still incomprehensible.”
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The tribute ceremony began at 11 a.m., the time at which Dominique Bernard, 57, was killed with several stab wounds by Mohammed Mogouchkov, a Russian from Ingushetia, then aged 20. It was held on the Place des Héros in Arras, at the very place where several thousand people had gathered two days after the assassination of the teacher, stabbed at the entrance to the Gambetta-Carnot school campus where he taught. Thought with those close to the teacher as a “cultural memory sequence”, according to the mayor of Arras Frédéric Leturque, the ceremony includes different artistic performances, from an interpretation of Mozart’s K.285 quartet to that of a song by Damien Saez, “Les enfants paradis”, according to the planned schedule.
At the same time, in Éragny (Val-d’Oise), a tribute was paid to Samuel Paty, a history and geography professor who was also murdered by a young radicalized Islamist on October 16, 2020, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines). “Samuel Paty has become a symbol of freedom of expression and the defense of secularism, just like Dominique Bernard”declared the mayor, Thibault Humbert. “It is a terrorism which stands against our freedoms which scares it with unfortunately increasingly young relays in our society […] It’s an alarming and stifling situation that we must be concerned about,” he said. “Today, many teachers are still afraid and avoid tackling certain subjects, it’s a collective defeat. We do not have the right to abdicate and resign ourselves.”
A minute of silence will be observed on Monday in middle and high schools in France in tribute to Dominique Bernard and Samuel Paty.
