Masses celebrate Nevruz peacefully

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Messages from the Democratic Society Party, or DTP, and the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to keep away from violence prevailed during Saturday’s festivities. Revelers sang and danced around bonfires in Diyarbakır, where the festivities organized by the DTP ended peacefully.

At the Diyarbakır celebrations, several dozen demonstrators wearing t-shirts with a picture of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, leader Abdullah Öcalan, hid their faces behind scarves while women dressed in bright-colored traditional clothes danced and waved DTP flags in the Kurdish colors of red, yellow and green.

Over 500,000 people attended the celebrations where participants chanted slogans in favor of the PKK but police did not intervene.
A message from Öcalan delivered through his lawyers was read. In contrast to previous years, CHP supporters also participated in Nevruz celebrations in Diyarbakır.

DTP leader Ahmet Türk called on Ankara to hold dialogue with the PKK and release Öcalan to end the long-running conflict. "The conditions for peace are clear ... You cannot resolve the Kurdish question without speaking to the insurgency," Türk, dressed in traditional Kurdish clothes, told the crowd.

Tens of thousands also gathered in the Kazlıçeşme district of Istanbul, as DTP activists called for an end to "repression" of the Kurds and respect for their culture.

Past Nevruz celebrations, which mark the beginning of the New Year according to the Iranian calendar, have been marred by violence from PKK supporters. On Saturday the festivities ended without incident, but the Anatolia news agency quoted Istanbul Governor Muammer Güler as saying that security forces detained three suspected PKK members preparing for attacks in the city. Police detained five people in the predominantly Kurdish town of Siverek and five more in the southern city of Adana for unfurling banners praising Öcalan. Around 20 people were detained in Istanbul.

In official Nevruz celebrations in Ankara, Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay lit the Nevruz fire. U.S. Ambassador James Jeffrey, who also attended the celebrations, jumped over the bonfire with Günay.