2722 the year Kurds spread the fire of Unity and Freedom

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SOAS University of London

The SOAS and KCL Kurdish societies invite you to:

SOAS X KCL Newroz, 23 March

About this Event:

Our annual Newroz celebration!

Join us on March 23rd for a spectacular night celebrating the Kurdish new year.

The event will include Kurdish dancing (govend/halparka), traditional food, drinks, and live music from Koma Sersi

7-10:30PM

23rd March

Main Building SOAS, London, WC1H OXG

Room: JCR

£8 – available via Eventbrite!

Tickets

Tickets for SOAS X KCL Newroz can be booked here.

Get Tickets
Ticket Information Ticket Price
General Admission GBP 8

Hosted by KCL Kurdish Society

https://allevents.in/london/soas-x-kcl- ... 0715306307

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Newroz capital Akre lights up in celebration

Kurds from all over the Region have lit up the town of Akre in Duhok, considered the capital of Newroz, as the ages-long tradition of lighting fires to welcome the new year on the first day of spring commenced on Sunday

Hundreds of thousands of people from the Kurdistan Region, as well as Kurdish regions in Turkey, Iran, and Syria celebrated Newroz on Sunday, also symbolizing a day of freedom from tyranny and resistance.

In Akre, it has become a tradition for visitors to climb up the town's mountain with torches after dusk, creating a festive spirit with fireworks displays in the diverse town where Muslims, Christians, and other ethnicities and religious groups have coexisted for centuries.

This year, around 150,000 people from the Kurdistan Region and other Kurdish-populated areas have flocked to the town to celebrate Newroz, the town's mayor Mazin Mohammed Said told Rudaw on Sunday.

Celebrations in the city of Kirkuk also ensued as thousands of Kurds lit the Newroz fire at Kirkuk Citadel.
— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) March 20, 2022

This year, Newroz festivities in the Kurdistan Region finally returned back to normal after they were halted for two years as the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic prevented large gatherings from taking place.

In 2020, a total lockdown was enforced in Newroz as the Kurdistan Region was recording its first coronavirus cases.

Kurds celebrate Newroz on March 21-23 by picnicking in the countryside and lighting bonfires with their families and loved ones. The occasion is known as the Kurdish New Year.

Celebrations and festivities are held across the Kurdistan Region with hundreds of thousands of Kurds dancing in their colorful and traditional Kurdish clothes.

Thousands of tourists from Iraq have also flocked to the Region for Newroz celebrations.

On Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced Sunday, March 20, and Monday, March 21, to be official holidays in celebration of the Kurdish New Year.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/200320223

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Kurdish leaders send Newroz regards

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Top leaders from the Kurdistan Region have sent celebratory messages and expressed their warm regards to the Kurdish people amid ongoing preparations to celebrate Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, across the Region

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Sunday extended his "warmest wishes to the families of the fallen heroes, to the Kurdish people, and to all peoples and communities of Kurdistan and its brave Peshmerga," in addition to wishing everyone a Happy Newroz.

President Barzani urged citizens of the Kurdistan Region to celebrate in an eco-friendly manner, protect the environment while traveling to the countryside to celebrate, and to follow all safety instructions for "precautionary measures and personal protection against infections."

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani also issued a statement, offering his "warmest congratulations" to the people of Kurdistan while also asking fellow citizens to "protect the nature" when they go out to celebrate.

PM Barzani commended the Kurdistan Region's peace and stability, and added that the Region has always promoted coexistence and has never been a threat.

"Newroz has throughout history for the Kurdish people been a symbol of resistance against tyranny, freedom, and survival," PM Barzani's statement read. "The Kurdish people still continue to struggle for their constitutional rights, and will in no way give up on their national rights under any pressure."

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani also sent joyful wishes to the "beloved citizens" of the Region, "both inside and outside and in all parts of Kurdistan."

"I hope that this feast will bring peace and tranquility to all sides and bring peace and brotherhood to our country and the Region," he said.

Earlier in the day, heads of several diplomatic missions in Erbil also extended warm greetings for Newroz.

Known as Newroz, Kurds celebrate their New Year on March 21-23 by picnicking in the countryside and lighting bonfires with their families and loved ones.

Celebrations and festivities are held across the Kurdistan Region with hundreds of thousands of Kurds dancing in their colorful and traditional Kurdish clothes.

Thousands of tourists from across Iraq have also flocked to the Region for Newroz celebrations.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/200320221

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UK city celebrates Newroz

The Kurdistan flag was raised next to the Union Jack in a southern England city on Monday in celebration of Newroz, the second time such a ceremony has been celebrated by the city’s municipality

Kurds gathered in front of Portsmouth’s Guildhall Square on Monday, where they sang Kurdish songs and performed the traditional dance of “Halparke,” as the Kurdistan flag was raised by the city’s municipality for 24 hours for the second time since 2019. In addition to the Kurds present, the ceremony was also attended by the city’s governor, mayor, and local officials, according to the Malli Kurd organization.

“Portsmouth is the first city in Europe that honors the flag and Kurdistan in such a way,” Halo Dizayee, who participated in Monday’s festivities, told Rudaw on Wednesday.

The ceremony was first pitched to the Portsmouth municipality in 2018 by the Malli Kurd (House of Kurds) organization, which has represented the city’s Kurdish community since 2017. The municipality was quick to accept the request made by the Kurds, considering the nation’s long history of suffering and displacement, raising the Kurdistan flag next to the British flag for the first time on March 21, 2019.

“We cannot forget the tireless work of Mr. Brian Futcher, who played a large role in the aforementioned subjects, and has helped Kurds of the city greatly,” said Dizayee.

Portsmouth resident and long-time supporter of the Kurds, Brian Futcher. Photo: Photo: Malli Kurd organization's office

Futcher, who first became aware of the Kurdish cause in 1991 during the Iraqi conflict, had been a valiant champion for the Kurds in and out of Portsmouth. He visited Iraq to help Kurdish civilians during the Saddam war, and has since visited Kurdistan’s other regions in Syria, Turkey, and Iran on multiple occasions.

“I responded because I could see that I had love for the Kurdish people,” Futcher told The Portsmouth News in 2020.

In 2020, Futcher opened a center called the Hiwa Center (Center of Hope) to assist Portsmouth’s Kurds with filling legal forms and advice on living in the city, as well as providing free English lessons to women. Futcher also organized the planting of the Garden of Hope, a memorial site to honor the martyrs of the 1988 Halabja chemical attack.

“It’s called the Hiwa Center because I wanted it to be in their language, it’s theirs, not mine or the churches or anything,” said Futcher.

Futcher passed away at the age of 78 on Tuesday, only one day after Newroz, leaving behind a legacy that will remain in the minds of the Kurdish community in Portsmouth for years to come.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/world/24032022

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Hundreds of Kurds arrested

Hundreds of people were arrested in the Kurdish areas of Turkey and Iran during Newroz celebrations on Monday, as millions of Kurds gathered to celebrate the ancient festivity

At least 298 people, including 100 children, in Turkey's southeastern Kurdish-populated city of Diyarbakir (Amed) were "detained unlawfully" during large-scale celebrations of Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, the Diyarbakir Bar Association said on Tuesday.

The association called for the detainees to be released immediately, decrying the unlawful nature of holding children in detention, as it is a "violation of the ban on ill-treatment," and further urging for "the practice that violates fundamental rights and freedoms" of children to be abandoned.

Meanwhile, across the border in Iran at least 60 people were arrested by security forces while celebrating Newroz in the Kurdish cities of Sanandaj and Piranshahr, Hengaw human rights organization reported.

Arsalan Yarahmedi, the head of organization, told Rudaw English that some of the civilians were detained immediately after participating in the Newroz celebrations at a children's park in Sanandaj. Iranian security forces prevented the people from attending the event and disrupted the celebration.

The disruption of celebrations was not limited to Iran given that Turkish security forces prevented numerous Kurds dressed in their traditional dress from attending the large Newroz celebration held in Diyarbakir on Monday, according to Rudaw's reporter on the ground, Rawin Sterk, who said that outfits with "a national theme" are prohibited at the event.

In the Kurdish areas in Turkey, Newroz celebrations hold a particular importance to Kurds given that they have not been allowed to celebrate their new year for decades, and are increasingly facing pressure from the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Footage circulating on social media showed police forces using water cannons to disperse a large crowd of visitors as they headed to the celebration in Diyarbakir.

Ethnic minority groups, including Kurds and Azeris, are disproportionately detained and more harshly sentenced for acts of political dissidence, according to a July 2019 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran.

On Tuesday afternoon, Hengaw announced on their instagram account that 14-year old Ariana Salimi, one of the arrestees, was released from detention.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/22032022

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Defend Kurdistan

Thousands of people took part in the Germany-wide "Defend Kurdistan" demonstration in Düsseldorf today against the Turkish war of aggression against Kurds

The protesters had gathered in the morning in front of the DGB building for an opening rally. On the back of a truck, several speakers addressed the crowd, including representatives of KON-MED, KCDK-E, PJAK, the Yaresan Platform, the Yazidi Coordination in Europe and the Left Party.

The criticism was unitedly directed at the so-called "Western community of values", which tolerates the war of aggression of NATO member Turkey in South Kurdistan and is seen as jointly responsible. In particular, the support of the Turkish regime by the German government was denounced. Afterwards, the demonstration moved via Steinstraße and Königsallee in front of the state parliament.

The march lasted a good hour after the start to the NRW state parliament. People of all ages were involved, many divided into different blocks, including artists of the Kurdish cultural movement TEV-ÇAND, members of the youth structures and activists of the Turkish left. Numerous people carried yellow placards with the inscription "Defend Kurdistan," and some signs also read the demand "No German tanks for Erdoğan's wars." The slogan that was chanted most often was "Erdoğan, terrorist."

Karamus: "The Fairy Tale of the Right of Self-Defense Against the PKK"

In front of the state parliament, the demonstration culminated in a final rally where prominent figures from Kurdish politics and diplomacy took to the stage. Ahmet Karamus, co-chairman of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), spoke of how the war of aggression that began on April 17 was directed against all Kurds and their achievements. "We know the fairy tale of the right of self-defense against the PKK. It is a fabrication.

Turkey's goal is the destruction of all Kurdish achievements; the near independence of Western Kurdistan, the status of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the structures in Yazidis in Şengal included. The goal is the annihilation of Kurdish existence.

The opportunity for this war waged from the ground and from the air with NATO resources, chemical weapons and support of local collaborators seemed favorable for the Erdoğan regime because the world is looking at Ukraine.

Ilham Ehmed: "The existence of the Kurdish people is at stake"

The top Kurdish politician and executive committee chairwoman of the Syrian Democratic Council (MSD), Ilham Ehmed, was also in Düsseldorf today. She was greeted with the slogan "Bijî Berxwedana Efrînê" (Long live the resistance of Afrin). Ehmed described the phase that Kurdish society is currently going through as historic. "For the Kurdish people, it is a matter of being or not being.

The Kurdish liberation movement has fought for great opportunities for the freedom of Kurds and all other peoples in the Middle East over the past decades. Today is the day to create a life according to these measures of freedom. If we do not succeed, we will not be able to escape collective annihilation. Therefore, we must not miss this moment when freedom is closer than ever before.

The Turkish state, whose foundation is the mentality of genocide, knows only too well that the liberation of the Kurdish people means its end. That is why it is channeling all the resources it is given by NATO and the Western community of states against our freedom movement and the Kurdish people."

Turkey has crushed Kurdish autonomy efforts since its inception

Ilham Ehmed remarked that the fact that the Turkish regime invokes self-protection reasons against the "terrorists" in the Medya Defense Zones in order to legitimize a war of aggression speaks to the anti-Kurdish mentality in Ankara. The Turkish Republic has been bloodily suppressing the autonomy aspirations of Kurds and all other oppressed societies since its establishment.

Think of Seyîd Riza in Dersim or Şêx Saîd in Ağrı. The Kurdish people have been the target of the Turkish state's extermination campaigns long before the PKK. And even today, the existence of the PKK is not the reason that the Turkish state is attacking the Kurdish people, but the fact that the Turkish state is attacking the Kurds is the reason for the existence of the PKK.

We are in the midst of a war of annihilation. The existence of the entire Kurdish society is at stake, not the existence of the PKK in the south. Everyone should realize this. All Kurdish forces parties, especially those in South Kurdistan, as well as the society in the diaspora are called upon not to miss the moment of freedom. If we lose today, we will not be able to stand up again."

Kurds MUST stop arguing between themselves

MUST unite and go forward as ONE

ONE people
ONE flag
ONE Kurdistan

MUST emphasize the FACT that next year marks the hundredth year of division and genocide