The festival of Newroz is being celebrated across all four parts of Kurdistan today. You can find detailed coverage of the Newroz celebrations on our liveblog here:
One Kurdish social media user shared this viral post on social media platform X:
“This year, Newroz feels more powerful than ever. Kawa's spirit burns bright, may all tyrants fall and may Kurdistan soon be free and united. Happy Newroz to the grandchildren of Cyaxares, to all Kurds!”
Cyaxares was the king of the Medes, who ascended to the throne of Media in 625 BCE. The Medes were an ancient people who lived in what is now modern day Iran. It has been suggested that the Medes were the forefathers of the Kurdish people.
Iraqi Kurdistan
In Shekhan (Şêxan), part of the Nineveh district of Iraqi Kurdistan, Muslim and Yazidi Kurdish people celebrated Newroz together. Their joint celebrations are a marker that the days of ISIS’s violence against the minorities of Nineveh are over.
🔥 Yezidi and Muslim Kurds together celebrate Newroz in capital of coexistence Shekhan, Kurdistan.#Newroz2725 pic.twitter.com/RGHqVxTB04
— Duhok Buzz (@Duhok_Buzz) March 20, 2025
This video shows the collective lighting of the Newroz fire in Sulaymaniyah (Silêmanî), Iraqi Kurdistan:
Nowruz 2735 in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan. pic.twitter.com/lwBEfhvJsW
— Şinyar ☀️ (@shnyar01) March 20, 2025
A huge ceremony was held in Erbil (Hewlêr), with celebrants using the walls of the ancient city as a stage for the Newroz torchbearers:
Kurdistan başkenti Hewler’de Newroz ateşi yakıldı. pic.twitter.com/zEf23ofjfL
— Roj Kurdistan (@Raperin___) March 20, 2025
Meanwhile, in Qandil, Kurdish youth held a grand celebration with fireworks, despite ongoing Turkish attacks. Imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s name was emblazoned across the mountain side.
🚨Kandil’de gerçekleştirilen kudretli Newroz kutlaması. pic.twitter.com/RFfpLW9kpp
— ⚫️ROJGER HELİN (@qandkseroknwrz) March 20, 2025
As night fell on 20 March, the city of Akre in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq once again became the centre of one of the most spectacular Newroz celebrations. Known for its iconic torch-lit mountain processions, Akre has long been a symbolic site where Kurds welcome the new year with fire, music and dance.
The celebrations began at 18:45, with over a thousand people carrying torches up the 340 steps leading to the summit of Keli Mountain. The striking image of flames illuminating the mountain has become a defining scene of Newroz, representing resistance, renewal and the enduring Kurdish spirit. Those who did not make the climb gathered in the city below, enjoying the vibrant atmosphere, traditional music torch-lit performance and fireworks.
According to the Akre Tourism Directorate, this year’s festival drew a record 88,000 visitors, making it one of the largest Newroz gatherings in the region. As torches blazed atop the mountain and Newroz fires burned across the city, the celebrations reaffirmed the cultural significance of this centuries-old tradition, uniting Kurds in a powerful display of heritage and resilience.
Syria/AANES
Kurds and other peoples across Syria celebrated Newroz today, marking the first celebration of the traditional Kurdish New Year after the fall of the Assad regime.
Tens of thousands of Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians and Turkmen gathered at 11 major celebrations in cities such as Qamishli (Qamişlo), Afrin (Efrîn), Kobani (Kobanê) and Derik (Dêrîk) across northern and eastern Syria. The Newroz celebrations, usually attended by thousands of people, were held on a smaller scale this year out of respect for the victims of a Turkish airstrike that killed 10 civilians in the village of Barkh Botan (Berxbotan), south of Kobani, on 16 March.
Festivities extended beyond Kurdish-majority areas, with Alawite communities in Syria’s coastal provinces and the Druze-majority city of Suweida also lighting Newroz fires in solidarity with the Kurdish people.
Alawite and Druze flags were also raised at celebrations in North and East Syria.
From the Newroz celebrations in northeastern Syria
Raising the Alawite and Druze flags alongside the Rojava flag
Love and peace to our brothers and partners in the homeland pic.twitter.com/DiqWCwn6Nw
— Rojava Network (@RojavaNetwork) March 21, 2025
Hundreds gathered in Syria’s capital Damascus to celebrate Newroz, with this year’s celebrations believed to be one of the biggest celebrations in the city of the last decades.
Armenians living under the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) have also joined Newroz celebrations across the region, marking the festival as a day of liberation and unity among the region’s diverse communities.
նովրուզի տոնը թող! ազատութեան օր ըլլայ
BILA NEWROZ BIBÊ ROJA AZADÎ!
NEWROZ FREEDOM DAY! pic.twitter.com/CmwPmLpa2x— Armenians Rojava (@ArmeniaRojava) March 20, 2025
Recognised by the AANES as an indigenous people with distinct cultural and linguistic rights, Armenians in towns and cities such as Qamishli (Qamişlo), Kobani (Kobanê) and Hasakah (Hasekê) gathered with Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs and other groups to light fires and mark the arrival of spring and renewal.
Southeast Turkey (Bakur)
Abdullah Öcalan’s Newroz 2025 message has been played to a crowd of hundreds of thousands in the Rezan (Baglar) district of Diyarbakır (Amed). The assembled people were able to hear Öcalan’s voice, while viewing his image on a big screen.
The festival ground was decorated with the slogan: ‘Democratic Society for Freedom’. A huge banner emblazoned with the Kurdish leader’s face was paraded around Rezan’s Newroz Park by a group of young people.
Free Women’s Movement (TJA) member Sebahat Tuncel addressed the crowd, calling on the Turkish government to “open the roads of democratic politics”. “We want to see President Apo here,” she demanded – amidst thunderous applause and chants of “Bijî Serok Apo” (‘long live leader Öcalan’).
Huge celebrations also took place in Van (Wan) and Öcalan’s hometown of Halfeti (Xalfetî), demanding that the Turkish state heed Öcalan’s calls for peace.
Rojhilat/Iranian Kurdistan
Huge crowds have gathered over the last days in Ûrmîa (Ûrmîye) and other cities in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhilat), in defiance of attempts by the Iranian regime to ban festivities and public dancing. In Urmia in West Azerbaijan province, Mezopotamya Agency reported that tens of thousands attended the celebrations.
Au Rojhilat, des foules immenses accueillent le #Newroz pic.twitter.com/r6mE7Rw5SC
— Conseil Démocratique Kurde en France (@Le_CDKF) March 20, 2025
Ûrmîye’den Newroz geçti…
📌Rojhilat Kürdistanı’na bağlı Ûrmîye şehrinde Newroz kutlamaları onbinlerce yurttaşın katılımıyla coşkuyla gerçekleştirildi. pic.twitter.com/KLqJwCPICf
— Oktay Yuğurtçu (@Baykan1992) March 19, 2025
Meanwhile, Turkish residents of Ûrmîa held a counter-gathering in another part of the city, chanting racist slogans.
Celebrations also took place in Gavareh, Bokan, Naqdeh, Saqqez, Sardasht and Sarpol-e-Zahab, despite arrests and threats from the Iranian Islamic state’s revolutionary guard forces.
In all four parts of Kurdistan, Newroz celebrations have imbued a new enthusiasm and hope, inspired by the 27 February call for peace and a democratic society by the imprisoned Kurdish leader.
