SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Tens of thousands of Kurdish people celebrated Newroz in the cultural capital of the Kurdish community Diyarbakir on Sunday and protest against the repression of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the country.
People in traditional Kurdish clothes danced and chanted slogans at the event where HDP deputies were also present, days after a case was filed by a top prosecutor with Turkey’s highest court aiming to disband the party for alleged ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“The HDP is the people and the people are here!” the crowd in Diyarbakir chanted, waving flags in the party’s colors.
If the HDP is banned “another party will replace it, it won’t change anything” Yusuf Celik, one of the protesters, told AFP.
“The Kurds, those who have honor, will support this cause to the death,” he added.
”Newroz is a symbol of peace and the freedom and resistance of the Kurdish people. Newroz is the day of women’s freedom and the freedom of the oppressed people,” co-Mayor of Silvan municipality of Diyarbakir Naside Toprak said.
The repression of the HDP also figured high in the celebrations to mark the Kurdish New Year in Istanbul Saturday.
Every March, around 300 million people across the world celebrate the Persian New Year with bonfires, folk music, fireworks and local food. Nowruz is celebrated in various Turkish cities where large Kurdish communities reside, including Van, Mardin, Hakkari and Tunceli.
