The Newroz festival, which marks the traditional Kurdish new year, was celebrated in different countries across Europe, with Kurdish people and international supporters coming together to enjoy Kurdish traditional music and dancing and demand the freedom of imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan.
Hundreds of Kurds and international supporters gathered in the London to celebrate Newroz. Wearing traditional Kurdish clothes and dresses, they performed Kurdish round dances around the Newroz fire.
Members of the Kurdish Youth Movement, the Young Women’s Movement and the Kurdish People’s Council gave speeches at the event and declared their support for the recent historic call of Öcalan and sent their greetings to the Kurdish leader and other political prisoners in Turkey.
In his speech, a member of the youth movement stressed that “the freedom of leader Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] is the freedom of all of us” and underlined the importance of Öcalan’s freedom for a peaceful solution of the Kurdish question in Turkey.
Kurds and international activists also came together in the Austrian capital, Vienna, to hold a torchlit march through the city. After the march, they gathered in the local Resselpark, starting with a minute of silence for the martyrs of the Kurdish struggle for freedom and continued with a speech by an activist of the Kurdish Student’s Union (YXK).
“We dream of a future in which the spirit of Newroz is alive everywhere in Kurdistan. Each one of us should rekindle the fire of hope within themselves,” the activist emphasised.
The event ended with live musical performances by several Kurdish artists and people dancing traditional Kurdish dances while shouting “Bê Serok jiyan nabe (There is no life without the leader)” and “Ji Îmraliyê re hezar silav (A thousand greetings to Imrali)”, declaring their connectedness with Öcalan, who has been imprisoned on Imrali island in Turkey since 1999.
Newroz celebrations were also held in multiple cities across Italy. Kurds and international supporters gathered in Bologna to listen to a live concert by Kurdish artist Belçîm Atay, dancing Kurdish dances and shouting the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom” in Italian and Kurdish. The place of the event was decorated with flags of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the People’s Protection Units (YPG), Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) and banners reading “Free Apo – Free Kurdistan”.
Celebrations were also held in Parma, where dozens of people gathered at a public place to listen to different Kurdish artists and a local women’s choir from the city.
Hundreds of people gathered in Italy’s capital Rome to celebrate, with people dancing traditional Kurdish dances around a huge Newroz fire.
Kurds and international activists gathered at the 1 May square in Athens, Greece, which was embellished with flags of the PKK and the Kurdistan Women’s Freedom Party (PAJK) and flags demanding the freedom of Öcalan. The Democratic Kurdish Society Center gave a speech at the celebration, stating that the freedom of Öcalan was “closer than ever”.
The Newroz celebration concluded with Kurdish lives music and people dancing Kurdish round dances until the evening hours.
Hundreds of people also gathered in Saarbrucken, Germany to join a torchlit march through the city, shouting the slogans “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî (Women, Life, Freedom)” and “Bijî berxwedana Rojava (Long live the resistance of Rojava)”. After the march, the people gathered in a park, where a children’s choir performed traditional Kurdish songs and a group of young women showcased a Kurdish dance performance, while showing their traditional Kurdish clothes.
The event ended with people dancing around and jumping over the Newroz fire, a traditional ritual of the Newroz celebration symbolising the start of the new year.
