Thousands of people gather to celebrate Nevruz

DIYARBAKIR

Thousands of people have marked Nevruz, a traditional festival that celebrates the arrival of spring, with colorful rituals across Türkiye, especially in the southeastern and eastern parts of the country.

Nevruz is marked as part of Kurdish, Iranian and Eurasia traditions in the second half of March as the first day of spring with colorful celebrations.

First lady Emine Erdoğan, in her message on the occasion of Nevruz, said, "I hope that spring, which gives hope to the new day and life to nature, will surround the earth with goodness, beauty and love, and I wish that we can reach many more springs under the roof of friendship and fraternity."

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli also published a message on his social media account to mark Nevruz.

"Nevruz is the day when the feeling of unity and solidarity is crowned with the spring. It is the period when fertility, abundance, love and respect become stronger. Nevruz is the torch of spring, peace and brotherhood that the Turkish nation carries generationally," he said.

In the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, 2.5 tons of firewood was set to burn during the Nevruz celebrations to be held under the leadership of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).

Some 7,500 police officers will be on duty during the celebrations, where 10 kilometers of barriers will be set up on an area of 136,000 square meters.

In many cities in Iran, people also jump over small bonfires with a belief of trying to purify themselves against evil and misery and celebrate the beginning of the New Year according to the country’s official Solar Hijri calendar.

Similar festivities are held in Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Nevruz is officially registered on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity List, and the United Nations General Assembly has also declared March 21 as “International Nevruz Day.”