In defiance of government's ban on Newroz, the day the coming of the spring is celebrated in the Kurdish culture hundreds of thousands took to the streets. Violent clashes occurred.
AKP government rejected the BDP* demand to celebrate Newroz** on Sunday last week. Instead it announced that it will only let the Newroz to be celebrated on the 20th of March. However many illegal demonstrations took place in the Kurdistan region and Istanbul. In Istanbul one BDP member was killed by the gas used by police. One BDP member of parliament was beaten by the police and fainted.
http://www.economist.com/node/21551111
It is only ironic that albeit the claims of AKP government to be a "model of democracy and moderate Islam" in the Middle East (which is a claim that is taken up by many newly elected governments in Tunisia or Morocco) it is no different then many oppressive regimes in the region. Except the fact that it is elected...
* BDP (peace and democracy party) is the legal wing of the armed PKK which has around 20 MPs in the Turkish parliament and holds many municipalities.
**
The Kurdish association with Newroz has become increasingly pronounced since the 1950s when the Kurds in the Middle East and those in the diaspora in Europe started adopting it as a tradition.[4] Following the persecution the Kurds suffered in Turkey, the revival of the Newroz celebration has become more intense and politicized and has also become a symbol of the Kurdish resurrection.[4] By the end of the 1980s, Newroz was mainly associated with the attempts to express and resurrect the Kurdish identity.[4]
While the Kurdish celebration has taken the form of a political expression in Turkey, most Kurdish celebrations in Iran are identical to the national festivals.[5] Izady states that the reason for this may be that the original tradition and folklore behind Newroz has been lost in the northern and western parts of Kurdistan (i.e. Turkey), where it never evolved in the same way as in the southern and eastern parts.[5] Izady further states that Newroz might have gained prominence in the northern and western parts because of the prominence of the celebrations that the staunchest Kurdish adherents of Newroz, the Iraqi and Iranian Kurds, have enjoyed through their more frequent popular uprisings.[5] Thus the western and northern Kurds seem to perceive the celebration of the new year as a unifying political expression.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newroz_in_Kurdistan
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