Nowruz not what it used to be for Afrin’s Kurds

On March 21 of every yr, thousands and thousands of Kurds, Persians, Pashtuns, Azeris and different ethnicities have fun Nowruz, which implies “new day” in Persian and Kurdish and is equal to New Yr’s Day for these communities.

Nowruz is taken into account the one vacation celebrated by completely different ethnicities and non secular teams throughout the globe. It’s an official vacation in lots of nations, together with Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, the South Caucasus, the Crimean Peninsula, the Balkans, Kashmir, the Indian state of Gujarat and northwest China.

For tons of of years, Nowruz was seen as a non secular or cultural vacation for many of those that have fun it. Extra just lately, nevertheless, it has taken on a extra nationwide character among the many Kurds and has change into an annual occasion for Kurds to underline their id, calls for, and nationwide and political rights in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

The ritual of the Kurds begins March 20 at sundown, with the lighting of the Nowruz fireplace — a customized courting again to the period of the autumn of the Assyrian Empire by the hands of Medes (the Kurds’ ancestors), specifically Kawa, the blacksmith who went out to the mountains with a torch of fireplace in hand to ship an indication of victory to the individuals, based on the Kurdish narrative explaining the historical past of Nowruz.

Hussein al-Hajj, a younger man from the village of Afrin in northern Syria, advised Al-Monitor, “Nowruz for us represents a brand new day and the start of spring. It additionally means for us — as Kurds — the triumph of justice over injustice, simply as Kawa triumphed over Dahak, the oppressor.”

He mentioned, “Dahak was an Assyrian king and an oppressor. He’s the equal of Nimrud, who was killed by the Prophet Ibrahim. On March 20, we gentle a fireplace to recollect the fireplace lit on the roofs of homes as an indication of victory over Nimrud. The subsequent morning at dawn we have fun a big day — Nowruz.”

Hajj famous, “Earlier than 2021, the Syrian regime used to limit us, the individuals of Afrin, from celebrating this vacation. ‘A voluntary workday’ was imposed by authorities establishments, departments and colleges in Kurdish-majority areas below threats of political prosecution.”

He mentioned, “However after the Kurdish Democratic Celebration took management over Afrin, we had the best freedom to have fun on today. Earlier than the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition took maintain of the realm, celebrations and festivities was set two months forward of the vacation, often at Maydanki [a lake], close to Afrin. Everybody, younger and outdated, ready for the celebration in an enviornment, the place a minimum of 200,000 girls, males and youngsters gathered. Big crowds went to the mountains and into nature to have fun, generally regardless of the rain and the chilly climate. Well-known singers with their bands had been additionally invited to have fun with the individuals of the town.” 

“However after Operation Olive Department was launched by Turkey and the Syrian Nationwide Military [SNA] factions towards Syrian Democratic Forces’ positions surrounding Afrin in 2019, issues utterly modified for us,” he added. “The vacation turned bleak. It was when the Turkish forces attacked us, and it was inconceivable to have fun. They mentioned they had been liberating the areas. After we returned to our village close to Afrin, a neighbor lit a fireplace inside her house and never exterior as a result of she was afraid. Her home is positioned contained in the valley, in an not noticeable location. However the village’s safety forces learnt what she was doing and so they stormed her home, put out the fireplace and smashed some furnishings items on their method.”

Hajj mentioned, “We didn’t have fun the vacation in 2019. In 2020, the Turkish-backed insurgent forces expanded their management over the town of Afrin and the villages surrounding it, and regular life steadily started to return to the realm. I made a decision to proceed my secondary training after a two-year hiatus due to the struggle.”

“One week earlier than Nowruz in March 2020, the secondary faculty principal who’s Kurdish mentioned that the Turkish government-backed Directorate of Schooling in Afrin determined to not have an official vacation on March 21, and any pupil who absented themselves wouldn’t be allowed to take a seat for the ultimate exams. I needed to go to highschool that day, though I needed I may have celebrated this vital day with my household,” he famous.

He added, “On the identical day, the college administration compelled us to signal papers testifying that we attended faculty by an administrative order. This was very unusual for us as we didn’t even have sign-in sheets. All Kurdish college students signed a paper that we attended faculty on March 21, 2020, as proof that we didn’t have fun the vacation, which they wished us to denounce and never acknowledge in any respect.”

Hajj defined that in 2020 “the administration of a lot of the districts annexed to Afrin — corresponding to Sharan, Bulbul and Rajwa — gave out flyers stating that it was forbidden to have fun Nowruz.”

“Final yr, we held a really small and low-key celebration for the Kurds, within the presence of some figures from the Syrian Nationwide Coalition [SNC], in one of many occasion halls in Afrin. On March 21, we lit a fireplace inside our home. It was a small victory for us as a result of nobody bothered us. Nevertheless it was a secretive celebration,” Hajj concluded. “Nowruz won’t ever be the identical once more for us. We are going to by no means be capable to have fun with tens of 1000’s of individuals and even tons of of 1000’s of Kurds as we used to do on this nice day for us.”

In line with a report on Syria TV, only a few Kurds within the countryside of Afrin celebrated the vacation this yr by lighting a fireplace on the roof of their homes within the mountains.

In an announcement March 21, the SNC prolonged greetings to all of the Syrian individuals normally, and Syrian Kurds and Kurds in the remainder of the world specifically, on the event of Nowruz, which it praised as “a vacation of nice nationwide, cultural and social significance.”

The coalition known as on “our individuals within the east of the Euphrates with all its parts, particularly the Kurds, to affix palms to resume the spirit of the Syrian revolution, and to stand up once more towards the felony [Bashar] al-Assad regime, and towards the terrorist Democratic Union Celebration militias affiliated with the Kurdistan Staff Celebration, and expel them from Syria to Qandil, the place they got here from,” the Sham media group reported.

March 20 additionally marks the fourth anniversary of the entry of the Turkish armed forces together with the SNA to the town of Afrin in 2018.