21 March 2008 | Kurds in Turkey begin celebrations today of their most important holiday – Newroz, which marks the beginning of spring.

Even though the holiday is cultural in nature, clashes in recent years show that it is often used as a platform to broadcast political messages. Although it is expected that the festivities this year will be peaceful, security is on high alert.

To mark the holiday, people gather in and outside of cities. Large fires are lighted, danced around and jumped over.

This year, the celebrations, scheduled to continue over the next few days, will take place in 38 cities and 35 districts, or almost 80 settlements, Yücel Genç, celebrations coordinator of the Democratic Society Party, a pro-Kurdish nationalist party, told Today’s Zaman.

His party is reportedly trying to gather one million people for a mass show in Diyarbakır, a city in south-eastern Anatolia, considered as the unofficial capital of the region’s ethnic Kurds because of its large Kurdish population. It is expected that there will be no major provocations and the atmosphere in the region will be peaceful, but security forces are nevertheless tightening up measures.

In Istanbul festivities began early this morning on Sultanahmet Square and in Ankara, the celebration is to take place in the courtyard of the National Library. The traditional fire will be lit there and folk dances will be performed.

Newroz is widely marked through Central Asia, simply as a celebration of the beginning of spring, but in Turkey it is still considered as a symbol of Kurdish identity and a day of freedom by the Kurds. As such, the festival was banned until 1995 and Kurds who celebrated it were arrested. In 1992, some 70 people were killed in clashed with security forces.

In 1995, Turkey reclaimed the holiday as a national one and renamed it Nevruz, as it is now referred by central media. In recent years, it has been celebrated in a relatively calm atmosphere, though in 2006, 10 people were killed during mass demonstrations closely following the holiday.

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