March 22, 2000
Kurdish New Year Brings 150 Arrests in Turkey
ISTANBUL, March 21 -- The police detained more than 150 Kurds today after authorities banned public celebrations of the Kurdish New Year in Istanbul and several other cities. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
In the southeastern city of Sanliurfa, 10 people were detained for jumping over burning tires. It is a tradition on Nowruz, the Kurdish New Year, to jump over fire and symbolically burn away impurities and memories.
The police detained 92 people in Istanbul's neighborhood of Bakirkoy, where Kurds were said to be planning celebrations of Nowruz, the Anatolia news agency reported. At least 55 others were rounded up in other neighborhoods.
The police said they detained men who were walking in the area and who they suspected were planning to take part in illegal celebrations.
Turkey's pro-Kurdish Democracy People's Party said the police had detained people in about half a dozen other cities throughout the country.
Party officials urged Kurds not to violate the government ban in Istanbul, and said they had applied for permission to celebrate Nowruz on Sunday. Istanbul is home to an estimated one million Kurds.
Kurds celebrated their New Year with the arrival of spring today, while Iranians, along with people in many Central Asian republics, began celebrations on Monday.
Past festivities -- an occasion for Kurds to assert their cultural identity in Turkey -- have ended in riots that claimed dozens of lives. Turkey does not recognize its 12 million Kurds as a minority, and views Kurdish cultural identity as a threat to the Turkish state.