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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Thousands of Kurds gathered in the German city of Cologne over the weekend to celebrate what organizers hailed as the largest Kurdish New Year, Newroz, celebration in Europe.
At the start of the event, the Kurdish flag was waved and the national anthem Ey Reqib (Oh Enemy) was played. The anthem, recognized by Kurds as the national anthem of the Kurdistan Region and northeastern Syria (Rojava), includes the stirring lines: “Let no one say Kurds are dead. Kurds are alive, are alive.
Their flag will never fall.”Newroz, which marks the first day of spring, is celebrated by millions of Kurds in the Kurdistan Region as well as in Kurdish-majority areas in Turkey, Iran, and Syria.
On Newroz eve, bonfires are traditionally lit on mountaintops and hills. In the following days, families go on picnics and continue the celebrations outdoors. One of the central features of the festivities is the Kurdish folk dance, Halparke, where people of all ages join hands to form a circle and dance together.
“This Newroz is very important for us. To tell you the truth, we have been waiting for this day for so many years,” one of the participants told Rudaw. “It was a very beautiful Newroz, people celebrated with such enthusiasm.”
A participant also compared this year’s Cologne celebration to the one held in Afrin, a Kurdish-majority city in northwest Syria, where tens of thousands of Kurds gathered in the city square to celebrate.
“After seven years, the people came here with the support of the people of Afrin. It was indeed a very beautiful Newroz celebration,” he explained.
This year marked the first time in seven years that residents of Afrin could freely celebrate Newroz, following the enclave’s takeover by Turkish-backed armed groups.
In 2018, Turkey and its allied Syrian armed groups seized control of Afrin prompting hundreds of thousands of Kurds to flee.
The event in Cologne was organized in coordination with the Kurdistan Diaspora Confederation and the Kurdish community in Germany. A message from Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani was also shared during the celebration.
According to the Cologne Police spokesperson Sascha Wallmeroth, the event far exceeded expectations.
“Today we had a gathering in Deutzer Werft [square in central Cologne] for the occasion of the Kurdish New Year celebration. A permit application had been submitted for a gathering of 10,000 people, but tens of thousands participated,” Wallmeroth said.
“Many more people arrived than anticipated, and we contacted the event manager multiple times … to manage the crowd,” the Cologne Police spokesperson stated, adding “we had to stop the event repeatedly to clear ambulance routes.”
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