“We are saying we do not accept Sykes-Picot and we condemn it,” Shapal Ibrahim, one of the organizers of the festival told Rudaw. “We will send this message to the world in the voice of our singers.”
Surrounded by hundreds of men and women in traditional Kurdish dressing while waving the colorful Kurdistan flag, Ibrahim said today’s gathering was different from most previous events “by bringing in musicians instead of politicians.”
Among the crowd were German and other nationalities who the organizers said were friends of the Kurds and their cause.
“The event has been well organized and we expect a huge number of people to attend,” organizer and community activist, Shalal Sharo, told Rudaw. “We send our message by waving the Kurdish flag.”
Rudaw correspondent in Cologne Ala Shali said that a number of German MPs and politicians also attended the festival to show their support for the country’s Kurds.
“We seek freedom for our people today,” a Kurdish man said. “We hope all the suffering and hardship that was caused us due to the dividing of borders ends today and we become free.”
A hundred years ago the Kurdish regions of the Middle East were divided across four countries in a secret treaty between Britain, France and Czarist Russia as the three superpowers of the day agreed to dismantle the Ottoman Empire.
“I am here to say as humans it is our right to be free and have our own country,” said Muhammad Ali, an actor and playwright from the Syrian Kurdish city of Amude.
The question of Kurdish independence has been a hot topic in the Western and local media in recent days as the world marks Sykes-Picot’s 100th year anniversary and a referendum for independence is gaining momentum as Kurdish President Masoud Barzani has insisted the borders must be redrawn with a Kurdish state in mind.
