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Turkish police use tear gas to stop
Kurdish New Year Newroz celebrations
18.3.2012 |
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Riot police clash with pro-Kurdish demonstrators
during a protest in Istanbul March 18, 2012. Photo:
Reuters/Osman Orsa .
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Thousands of Kurds celebrate Newroz, Kurdish New
Year in Diyarbakir. March 18, 2012.
March 18, 2012
DIYARBAKIR, The Kurdish
region of Turkey, — Thousands of Kurds clashed with
police Sunday in Istanbul and the southern city of
Diyarbakir after police used water cannons and tear
gas to prevent Kurdish New Year Newroz celebrations.
Turkish authorities had rejected a Kurdish demand to
mark Newroz on Sunday as it was a holiday and had
declared Wednesday as the official day for the
festivities.
Police fired tear gas and used water cannons to
prevent thousands of Kurds from gathering at the
main square in Diyarbakir, the capital of the
Kurdish-majority south, an AFP correspondent said.
But the crowd of more than 5,000 pressed on despite
the police action and assembled at the city center
to mark Newroz.
Many wore clothes sporting the colors of The
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- green, red and
yellow.
In Istanbul, police prevented Kurdish groups from
gathering at a venue where the country's main
Kurdish party had organized festivities. They stoned
the policemen, who had set up barricades, Anatolia
news agency reported.
Police here too used water cannons and tear gas,
Anatolia said.
Newroz celebrations are traditionally used by
Turkey's Kurdish minority to press for greater
rights and profess its allegiance to the PKK.
Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been
fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the
constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a
Kurdish state in the south east of the country, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000
lives.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous
Kurdish region
and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who
constitute the greatest minority in Turkey,
numbering more than 20 million. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees,
lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the
way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within
Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader
Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against
the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish
constitution.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
The PKK is considered as 'terrorist' organization by
Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its
political wing on the European Union's terror list.
'Newroz' is the traditional Kurdish new year, The
year 2012 corresponds to the Kurdish year 2712. All Kurds around the world are celebrating
the new year 'Newroz'.
The Kurdish calendar starts at 612 BC. This is the
year that Cyaxares, the grandson of Deioces (Díyako),
the first king of the Medes' empire, occupied
Nineveh and put the end to the brutality of the
Assyrian empire in the lands under its occupation.
Throughout Kurdish history, Newroz is not only
considered as their New Years, but has been also
considered as a symbol of freedom, struggle for
justices, and peaceful coexistence with those
nations who have conquered Kurds lands-Kurdistan.
Although Newroz has for over 2700 years been
celebrated and considered as the Kurdish New Years
and National Holidays, for political reasons,
Persians consider it as "Iranian" and "their" new
years. And the funniest political scenario is that,
Turkey,www.ekurd.net
which until recent years didn't allow it's 20
million+ Kurds to freely celebrate Newroz, now
considers Newroz as "the beginning of spring
festivals" and tries to connect the only happy
Kurdish event, to a different and unrelated event.
Kurdish Calendar changes on March 21st.
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author or news agency,
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