Why another article on Kurds and the Newroz festival?

Kurdish activist during the street battles of Diyarbakir

So many of you keep asking to learn more after the two article we posted (by Sezayi Erken and Marco Palladino ) and so we decided to post something about the latest Kurdish uprising all over Turkey after the traditional Kurdish Newroz festivity (Kurdish New Year) as well as the normal living conditions of Kurdish people and refugees. Becasue this is something happening close to Europe, in a country (Turkey) willing to enter the E.U. that is coping an impetous modern develpment while, at the same time, dealing with many internal contradictions.

The Kurdish conflict in Turkey is now fought since more than 30 years. More than 40.000 people, mostly civilians, got killed, several Million Kurdish people got Internal Displaced People.

Several thousand additional people got killed by paramilitary and right-winged groups. Today there are still more than 4.000 political prisoners in Turkey and the clashes and fightings are still going on. It is a conflict on an high level but without broad media coverage, as Turkey is in the NATO and an important partner for the EU because of is geopolitical position.

Newroz in Diyarbakir

These photos were shot in Diyarbakir, Hasankeyf and Mardin / Southeast Turkey by Benjamin Hiller, young photographer and journalist living in Berlin, Germany. He was born in 1982 into a German-American family and was raised with a humanistic and cosmopolitan world-view.

His main fields in photography are the traditional coverage of social and political conflicts as well as capturing the essence of his subjects in the field of People/Portrait photography. His coverage of these themes have been published in German newspapers, international Magazines as well as via NGOs.

Furthermore, through his studies of ethnology he has become engaged in the area of Travel/Culture photography.

Happy Newroz! (by Sezayi Erken/S4C Istanbul)

Tens of thousands of Kurds celebrated Newroz festival in Istanbul as they carry Kurdistan flags, portraits of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerillas and rebel Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan on 20th of March.

Women, men and children who dressed in traditional way, danced and demanded their rights here in Istanbul. Tens of thousands of Kurds chanted support for a Kurdish rebel group and its imprisoned leader.

(click here to see the gallery)

Newroz in Turkey has become a symbol of Kurdish identity. Every year millions of Kurds celebrate Newroz festival throughout the country. While the Kurdish celebration has taken the form of a political expression, other countries such as Iran and Afghanistan, newroz is understood as a traditional spring festival.

In Kurdish legend, the Newroz holiday which coincides with the spring equinox, celebrates the deliverance of the Kurds from a tyrant. The celebrations are held between 18 and 24 March and it has an important place in the terms of Kurdish identity in Turkey.

The Kurds are a large and distinct ethnic minority in the Middle East, numbering some 25-30 million people. Half of the Kurds reside in Turkey, where they comprise over 20 percent of the Turkish population. Since beginning of modern rebuplic, any expression by the Kurds of unique ethnic identity has been harshly repressed. As a result, Kurdish nationalism is deemed separatism, and grounds for imprisonment.

(click to see the gallery)

The Turkish government has consistently disrupted attempts by the Kurds to organize politically. Kurdish political parties are shut down one after another, and party members are harassed and imprisoned for “crimes of opinion.” Beside that, The Ankara government has withheld resources from the Kurdish region. As a result, the inequality and repression did lead to the formation of an armed separatist movement, the PKK, in 1984. While the majority of Turkey’s Kurds do not openly support separatism from the Turkish state, many do support the PKK, as the only force fighting for broader Kurdish cultural, economic and political rights.

Despite of the campaign of armed violence in 1978, the rural-based insurgency began in 1984 with the urban clash throughout this period. According to official documents released by the Turkish military, more than 30 thousands of people including guerillas, soldiers and civilians have died in the bloody war. Some 3,000 villages have been destroyed by the military in an effort to root out PKK sympathizers, creating more than 2 million refugees.

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Buon Neworz! (foto di Sezayi Erken/S4C Istanbul)

(clicca per la galleria fotografica)

(clicca per la galleria fotografica)