What is Newroz? Development and Meaning of the Symbol of Resistance and Freedom

Omedya Revan

Every year on March 21, Newroz is celebrated with great enthusiasm by many people around the world, especially the Kurds. Some spend these celebrations in a boisterous festival mood, others more quiet, festive.

Without a doubt, Newroz has many meanings. A special one is the "arrival of spring". That is why it is always celebrated at the beginning of spring, although the rituals vary between regions.

Whenever it comes to Newroz, Kurdistan is considered the most important region and the center of this celebration. This is because here Newroz is associated not only with the arrival of spring, but also with the beginning of the Kurdish people's ongoing resistance.

For the Kurds, Newroz begins with the legend of the blacksmith Kawa

Kurdish mythology tells of a blacksmith named Kawa who lived 2500 years ago under the yoke of the tyrannical Assyrian king Dehak (according to other sources: Zuhak). According to the legend, this king, who was compared to a monster by the people because of his cruelty, had a snake on each shoulder. To feed them, he had two children brought to the palace every day, where they were killed by his cooks to feed their brains to the snakes.

But the tyranny of the cruel king was not limited to this. By his ruthlessness and power he also prevented the arrival of spring. His brutality increased, and the people no longer knew what they could do.

Faced with this, one day two friends, Armail and Karmail, decided to act. They managed to get hired as cooks in the palace. Of the two children who were to be killed to feed their brains to the snakes, they killed only one and helped the other to escape. They replaced its brain with that of a sheep. Thanks to this plan, they were able to save one child every day. Those who escaped death in this way were secretly trained in the mountains by the brave and kind-hearted blacksmith Kawa, whose son had also been murdered by the king, to form an army.

After this army grew and became stronger, it moved under Kawa's leadership to the palace of the tyrannical king on March 20 (although this date is not exactly known, it was the day before the legendary rebellion). In the ensuing battle, Kawa killed Dehak with his blacksmith's hammer. To signal to the people that he had killed the despot and thus put an end to the oppression, he lit a great fire in the courtyard of the palace. All who saw the fire came down from the mountain in groups to celebrate the victory. After setting the fire, Kawa climbed to the top of the highest tower of the palace and, thus taking part in the celebrations, waved his yellow-red-green cape. Thus, the Kurdish people were liberated from the tyrannical king and the next day the long-awaited spring began.

Thus, the Kurdish people's connection to Newroz developed through the retelling of this legend, through the ages to the present day. Although it is also a myth, the Kurds, realizing that "history is hidden in the now and we are hidden in the beginning of history", have resolutely continued the resistance that led to Newroz.

The spark of this fire that the blacksmith Kawa lit at that time was carried centuries later by the "contemporary Kawa", Mazlum Doğan¹, into the dark and cold cells of the Amed prison (Diyarbakır). This led a "resurrected" people, who were supposed to be destroyed, back to a new March 21.

Therefore, this day, which is always a symbol of duty and resistance, is an important part of Kurdish history. Newroz has become a symbol of a traditional folk reality and, as mentioned above, has a special meaning for Kurds as well as for many other groups in society.

Newroz also has a special meaning for me. For me - as a Kurdish child who spent its youth in the Turkish cities - it means setting car tires on fire in the streets on the night of March 20 and jumping over the fire shouting slogans. My first thing the morning after that night was to participate in the Newroz celebrations and activities of HADEP², the Kurdish political movement of the time.

Newroz celebrations were only ever allowed under other names, except in the 2000s. For the state, Newroz was a holiday that deserved to be banned. However, instead of openly banning it, it tried to establish a holiday that would instead be in line with its perspectives and views. Thus, the state allowed its own "Nevruz" celebrations, but no "Newroz."

Their own "Nevruz" celebrations were nothing more than the gathering of governors and government officials for whom red carpets were rolled out. They followed a set protocol that included people jumping over a symbolic fire. This approach and the understanding that the state displayed were an attempt to strip the social and historical reality of Newroz of its essence.

Newroz and the importance for the revolution - What is Newroz?

Newroz squares, initially visited by only dozens or perhaps hundreds, are now crowded with tens of thousands of people who share a common voice and a common conviction.

Newroz celebrations have always been the announcement of a new dawn and a new era. The Kurdish people, in particular, have always participated in them and to this day attribute to them the quality of a self-evident approval and popular vote. In 2005, for example, Öcalan's book "The Paradigm of Democratic Confederalism" was reflected in all Newroz celebrations as a common demand of the people.

Newroz celebrations have always played an important role and had a special significance in political processes. For this reason, the Turkish state has tried in the past to prevent mass participation in Newroz celebrations. Thus, it wanted to use massacres to prevent people from welcoming Newroz as a festival of resistance. The bloody Newroz of 1992 always retains its place in memory as one of the striking examples of this reality. In that year, nearly a hundred Kurds were murdered in attacks on the celebrations.

Despite bloody Newroz celebrations in 1992 and 1993, the unilateral cease-fire declared by Kurdish representative Öcalan ensured that Newroz 1994 remained without incident. In subsequent years, the celebrations were uneventful to some extent. When they evolved into a common national holiday for peoples with a freedom-oriented perspective, they unfolded even greater splendor. In this sense, Newroz 2005 in Amed went down in history as one of the celebrations with the largest participation. Later, Newroz celebrations in the cities of Kurdistan and Turkey extended over a whole week. If one wants to highlight special celebrations, then of course it makes sense to mention 2013 separately. In that year's celebrations, Abdullah Öcalan opened the door to a new era by integrating the historic step he took to develop a solution for the political process into the spirit of Newroz. As a result of the long struggle, the state met with Abdullah Öcalan [indirectly] at the negotiating table and hundreds of thousands witnessed this important development with the reading of a letter by Öcalan at the Newroz celebration in Amed. Undoubtedly, the philosophy he advocated was the source of the ideas and efforts that led to Newroz being celebrated in Kurdistan today by such a crowd and in such an enthusiastic and festive atmosphere.

At these Newroz celebrations, the contents of the slogans chanted and the flags and banners displayed are easy to understand.

The Significance of Newroz for the PKK

A celebration that started in March 1973 at the Çubuk Dam³ near Ankara was illuminated by the fire Mazlum Doğan set with three matches in Amed prison. And later Newroz became the Rahşans⁴, Zekîyes⁵, Ronahîs and Berîvans⁶. According to Öcalan, Newroz is a historical victory. Therefore, it is celebrated by all the peoples of the Middle East more as a festival of freedom to celebrate the collapse of domination and oppression, and less as one to merely welcome spring. Just as Abraham ended slavery and presented the Bayram festival, Newroz in this sense signifies liberation from the traditions and political tools of the slave system that survives by eating man like a machine. Based on all that has been said, Newroz contains the essence of the Kurdish people and always comes to the fore as the highest expression of the free and democratic will to live.To sum up, Newroz is the cry of Kurds that "freedom is my identity". The source of Newroz lies in Mesopotamia.To sum up, Newroz is the cry of Kurds that "freedom is my identity". The source of Newroz lies in the Mesopotamian lands. It is the courage to ask questions in the spring. It is the common holiday of the peoples of the Middle East.

In the 1990s, the Kurdish political movement consisting of young generations, workers and activists began to use and spread Newroz as a Kurdish ethnic citation in response to state policies in various centers, especially in Amed. Thus, it became a representation of Kurdish identity, an encounter with existence and a reality in which lost identity is recovered. It is the common holiday of the peoples of the Middle East.

Not "Nevruz" but "Newroz"

In fact, the Turkish state began to introduce Newroz as a "Nevruz-Ergenekon festival" mentioned in the books of some Turkish historians in order to prevent the growth for the Kurdish movement. For this, the state started to argue that Newroz is a Central Asian tradition in order to give the "Nevruz" tradition its own meaning and to prove that Mustafa Kemal had already participated in such a celebration in Ankara in 1925.

The state, pursuing the strategy of "protecting" the wealth and values of the Kurdish people under the label of "Turkishness", published in a circular in 1991, based on fabricated writings of its own historians, the instruction to celebrate "Nevruz" throughout the country as a Turkish "Ergenekon Festival". On March 21, 2002, then Minister of Culture Istemihan Talay claimed in a speech in parliament that "Nevruz" was actually a Turkish holiday, raising the denial of Kurdish identity to a new level. The Kurdish press reacted to these developments at the time with the headline "Newroz instead of Nevruz". The conflict over the spelling, with a V or with a W, had become a symbol, and so two letters seemed to be enough to divide the people into two camps.

Today, the new year begins in Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and several other Central Asian (Turkic) states on March 21. For Zoroastrians, Alevis and Bahais, Newroz is a holy day. Despite the fact that many people celebrate March 21, when day and night are the same length, as a holiday, the Kurds are the only ones who celebrate it as a political tradition.

This article was first published in the March/April2022 edition of the Kurdistan Report.