ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan flag was raised next to the Union Jack in a southern England city on Monday in celebration of Newroz, the second time such a ceremony has been celebrated by the city’s municipality.
Kurds gathered in front of Portsmouth’s Guildhall Square on Monday, where they sang Kurdish songs and performed the traditional dance of “Halparke,” as the Kurdistan flag was raised by the city’s municipality for 24 hours for the second time since 2019. In addition to the Kurds present, the ceremony was also attended by the city’s governor, mayor, and local officials, according to the Malli Kurd organization.
“It [Portsmouth] is the first city in Europe that honors the flag and Kurdistan in such a way,” Halo Dizayee, who participated in Monday’s festivities, told Rudaw on Wednesday.
The ceremony was first pitched to the Portsmouth municipality in 2018 by the Malli Kurd (House of Kurds) organization, which has represented the city’s Kurdish community since 2017. The municipality was quick to accept the request made by the Kurds, considering the nation’s long history of suffering and displacement, raising the Kurdistan flag next to the British flag for the first time on March 21, 2019.
“We cannot forget the tireless work of Mr. Brian Futcher, who played a large role in the aforementioned subjects, and has helped Kurds of the city greatly,” said Dizayee.
Futcher, who first became aware of the Kurdish cause in 1991 during the Iraqi conflict, had been a valiant champion for the Kurds in and out of Portsmouth. He visited Iraq to help Kurdish civilians during the Saddam war, and has since visited Kurdistan’s other regions in Syria, Turkey, and Iran on multiple occasions.
“I responded because I could see that I had love for the Kurdish people,” Futcher told The Portsmouth News in 2020.
In 2020, Futcher opened a center called the Hiwa Center (Center of Hope) to assist Portsmouth’s Kurds with filling legal forms and advice on living in the city, as well as providing free English lessons to women. Futcher also organized the planting of the Garden of Hope, a memorial site to honor the martyrs of the 1988 Halabja chemical attack.
“It’s called the Hiwa Center because I wanted it to be in their language, it’s theirs, not mine or the churches or anything,” said Futcher.
Futcher passed away at the age of 78 on Tuesday, only one day after Newroz, leaving behind a legacy that will remain in the minds of the Kurdish community in Portsmouth for years to come.
By Chenar Chalak
