Diyarbakır Newroz celebrated with joy amid security forces’ policy of intimidation

* Photos: Ali Safa Korkut

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The Diyarbakır Newroz, where several people could not reach the site of celebration due to the harsh attitude and intervention of the police, was celebrated with great joy and ethusiasm and with the participation of thousands of people of all ages from 7 to 70 despite all hardships caused by the law enforcement officers in the city and in the Newroz celebration site.

Security forces, for the first time this year, did not allow several people to enter the site due to the traditional Kurdish clothes that they wore. The women and men who were not let in the site due to the "Kiras u Fistans" and "Şal u Şepiks" that they wore had to change their clothes.

On March 21, the 2022 Newroz feast was once again celebrated with great joy and enthusiasm in Diyarbakır, which witnesses the greatest Newroz celebration in the Kurdish geography every year.

'Now is the time to win'

The Newroz celebrations took place at the Newroz Park in the Bismil district with the participation of hundreds of thousands of people. This year's motto was "Dem dema serkeftinê ye/ Now is the time to win".

Protokol, Zümrüt Kent, Göletli Park, Vehicle Inspection Station and Evrim Alataş Street were set as the entry points for the Newroz site

For the celebrations planned to begin at 9 in the morning, thousands of people started heading for Diyarbakır from several neighboring provinces and districts. Wearing colorful traditional clothes, they arrived at the checkpoints to enter the site with applause, ululations and slogans.

The police, on the other hand, took a harsh attitude towards the people, which caused the entries to the site to last for 4 hours at some points.

Ban on traditional clothes

Security forces denied entry to thousands of people to the Newroz site, especially from the Vehicle Inspection Station and Göletli Park, on the grounds of their traditional clothes and flags. The teams at the Inspection Station frequently made announcements, saying, "Wait silently without chanting slogans; otherwise, we will not let any one of you in. The slogans that you are chanting are illegal and you are all being recorded by cameras".

As the citizens did not take these announcements into account and kept on chanting slogans, anti-riot water cannon vehicles, or TOMAs as they are known in Turkey, intervened with pressurized water at 11.47 am. Following the intervention of the police, a group of nearly 10 people responded to the TOMAS by throwing stones; the brawl subsided shortly afterwards.

The citizens who came to celebrate the Newroz lambasted the stone-throwing group and ended this protest; however, the attitude of the police did not change. Several participants were turned down from the checkpoints with police officers' harsh warnings due to their traditional clothes. Upon these warnings, several people had to change their clothes.

*Young people not let in the Newroz site due to their traditional clothes.

*The young people not allowed to enter the site had to change their clothes.

Similar interventions were the case at the Airport (Göletli Park) entry point; some citizens were wounded there.

At the Vehicle Inspection Station and Göletli Park entry points, entries could begin only as of 1.30 pm. By then, the number of citizens waiting outside had been higher than the ones inside the Newroz site. That being the case, the celebrations took place outside. People could finally enter the site at 1.40 pm after being searched by the police at two search points.

Deniz Poyraz and Kemal Kurkut

There was a joyful mood in the air in the Newroz site, which was covered with the photos of the late Deniz Poyraz and Kemal Kurkut by the Newroz Organization Committee. While Poyraz was killed in an armed attack in the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) İzmir Office last year, Kurkut was shot to death by the police during the 2017 Newroz celebrations in Diyarbakır.

During the celebrations, Democratic Society Congress Co-Chair Berdan Öztürk, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Co-Chair Saliha Aydeniz and HDP Co-Chair Pervin Buldan as well as representatives from the political parties under the rood of the Kurdistani Alliance Work held speeches, which were mostly marked by demands for the Kurdish national unity and physical freedom of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who has been in aggravated isolation in the İmralı Type F High Security Prison in western Turkey.

Other issues high on the agenda were ill prisoners and economic crisis as well as the demands for making Kurdish an education and official language. Hundreds of thousands of people who joined the Newroz celebrations supported this demand with applause and ululations.

Due to the climate of intense oppression created by the government in terms of freedom of expression, several citizens abstained from sharing their opinions; however, what the ones that we spoke to said has shown that the issues on their agenda are the same as the Newroz speakers.

While participants said that they joined the Newroz celebrations to express their concerns about the imprisonment of former HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş, the climate of intense oppression in the country, feminicides, economic crisis and the failure to make Kurdish the language of education, their common wish is freedom for all Middle Eastern peoples.

'What they did at entry points was for intimidation'

Photo: Muzaffer Ç.

Muzaffer Ç. (57) was one of the people who finally managed to enter the Newroz site after a long struggle before the checkpoints.

He first complained about the hardships created at the entry points. "That was a brief summary of what the Kurds are subjected to in this country. We waited for hours to enter the site. With this treatment, they wanted to intimidate us and to spoil our joy as much as possible," he said, adding:

"I have come here today to demand a life where the rule of law is maintained and everyone leads an equal and free life".

Women's agenda: Male violence

The issue on the top of the women's agenda in Newroz was the same as all women all across the country: Male violence.

Photo: Zeynep Güner

While Zeynep Güner, one of the citizens, said that they came to the Newroz site to cry out loud for the freedom of all Middle Eastern peoples, especially Kurds, she added, "Like every other woman, the issue on our agenda is femincides and gender inequality in social life. We want all these to come to an immediate end and effective policies to be pursued against them."

Referring to Turkey's withrawal from the İstanbul Convention by a Presidential decision, she added, "The İstanbul Convention must be signed again as soon as possible and it must be put into effect".

Berivan T. made similar remarks. Expressing her wishes for peace and freedom for the entire Turkey, T. said, "We want feminicides to end and the necessary policies to be pursued and established to ensure an equal, fair and safe life for all women. We have come here today to cry that out loud. The policies pursued by the government about women's rights are totally against women. We are here to lash out at this, above all else".

Photo: Beritan T.

Beritan T. (32) also said that she joined the Newroz celebrations to protest the violence and pressure inflicted on women. "Withdrawing from the İstanbul Convention means making way for feminicides. By withdrawing from the Convention, men were told, 'You can kill women, this is your right'. This mistake must be corrected as soon as possible," said Beritan T. further.

'We were interrogated due to our clothes'

 *Young people coming from Antep

A group of five young people coming from Antep for the celebrations complained about the attitude that they faced by the police in Antep and Diyarbakır. İbrahim D. said that they came from Antep to protest the imprisonment of Selahattin Demirtaş and to support him and added:

We don't even need to express the climate of intense oppression in the city. We are not even free to wear the clothes we want to wear. We were interrogated by the police at the Antep bus terminal for nearly half an hour. They asked us who we were, for what we were going and for what purposes. At the Diyarbakır bus terminal, we were interrogated by the police, this time because we were speaking Kurdish. They did a criminal record check on us.

Concluding their remarks, young people expressed their demands for immediate action for a freer country.

'I am here for Demirtaş'

Photo: Behiye K.

Behiye K. (62) was one of the people who joined the Newroz celebrations in Diyarbakır. She said that she joined the celebrations in order to make a call for an equal and free life for everyone. She said that she wants Selahattin Demirtaş to be freed as soon as possible:

"I am here to support him, to show that he is not alone. I wish freedom to all unfairly jailed politicians, primarily for Demirtaş".

Young people complained about hopelessness

Photo: Gülistan Demir

As for the burning issues on the agenda of the young, they complained about the hopelessness caused by the economic crisis and the current climate of oppression. Gülistan Demir said that they were in the site to celebrate the arrival of spring and added, "We live in times when life is getting harder for young people. We want this to change for the better as soon as possible".

Baver Yıldırım, another young person, said, "If I had the chance, I would go to Europe. We cannot benefit from any opportunities for youth and the biggest reason behind this is the economic crisis. I cannot see a future for myself here under the current circumstances".

*Baver Yıldırım, on the left

With the musical performances of Rojda, Azad Bedran, Servet Kocakaya, Kazo and Elenora, the joy and enthusiasm of the celebrators increased minute by minute. All through the celebrations, people chanted the slogans "Deniz Poyraz and Kemal Kurkut are our honor", "Dem dema azadiyê ye/Now is the time to win", "Zimanê me rûmeta me ye/Our language is our essence", "Girtiyên nexweş rûmeta me ne" ve "Edî bes e dem dema azadiyê ye/Enough is enough, now is the time for freedom", "Bijî serok Apo", "Bê serok jiyan nabe" and "Bijî berxwedana zindanan/Long live the resistance of dungeons". The celebrations ended at 5 pm. (ASK/SO/NÖ/SD)