Amed- This year, Newroz is being celebrated at Newroz Park in the central of Amed with the motto, “Let’s resist and get free with the fire of Newroz”. The people of Amed are flocking to Newroz Park to Newroz Park. The citizens living in the districts and villages of Amed woke up in the early morning hours to come to Newroz Park. The buses of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality run by the unelected mayor don’t go to directly Newroz Park this year so the people have taken buses and then walked to the park. Thousands of people wearing their traditional clothes have flocked to the Newroz area by shouting slogans.

People are shouting slogans to protest the isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan kept in Imrali Island and to support the hunger strikes launched by political prisoners. The Kurdish Language Platform and Kurdish Language and Culture Network have set up a stand at the entrance of the Newroz Park within the scope of their petition demanding the Kurdish language to be recognized as an official language and the language of education in Turkey. The people have kept flocking to the Newroz Park while six people, who wanted to Newroz celebration, have been reportedly taken into custody.

“They cannot annihilate millions of people”

While people are celebrating Newroz with great enthusiasm and joy, we talk to women celebrating Newroz at Newroz Park. Fesihe Taşkıran is one of women celebrating Newroz. She wished a happy Newroz to all people and told us, “Don’t allow the bloodshed anymore, the pressures against us must be ended. Every day, they do different things to kill us but today we are here. And we will always be here. We are millions of people and they cannot annihilate millions of people.”

“We will demand freedom and resistance”

We talked to Gülnur Taş at the Newroz Park. She told us, “This area will be full of people. Last year, it was full of people and this year, it will be full of people again. We will always resist torture. We will always be here. They say, ‘We will annihilate Kurdish people’ but they will not. We will always demand freedom. I am here for my children and future. Happy Newroz to all Kurdish people, resisting people and people in prisons.”

“We will not bow to pressure”

Rindiye Bayrak drew attention to the pressures on the Kurdish people and prisoners and she told us, “We don’t accept the pressures for years. And we will accept them. People in prisons should resist, every Kurd should resist, we should resist so we show them we will never be annihilated. I am an old mother; we will never bow to pressure. Even though I am a sick woman, I came here."