Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
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Revue <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro <strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Basm Öz<strong>et</strong>i<br />
GÜLDEMÎR<br />
Istßnbul. Turkish<br />
Turkish Daily News "RIDAY, MARCH 21,1997<br />
'Nevruz is Turkish and<br />
will remain so!I<br />
Daily News<br />
• This year, it looks likely that our<br />
Newroz, thanks to the "Nevruz" which<br />
emerged as its rival, will be even more<br />
entertaining than last year' s.<br />
The Newroz tension which has occupied<br />
the whole country and even Europe<br />
has sud<strong>de</strong>nly vanished. The "I will celebrate",<br />
"you cannot celebrate" arguments,<br />
which would normally begin days before<br />
the Newroz day of 21 March, and which<br />
would become the major interest of the<br />
media, look as if they have become history.<br />
Foreign <strong>de</strong>legations that come to monitor<br />
Newroz do not attract the attention of<br />
anyone, not even those security forces who<br />
would normally lie in wait for an opportunity<br />
to arrest them. Another surprismg<br />
<strong>de</strong>velopment is the fact that the obstacles<br />
created for the previous celebrations have<br />
not been on the agenda for People's<br />
Democracy Party (HADEP) this year.<br />
HADEP will celebrate Newroz in open air<br />
and sports hall rallies in many cities. Party<br />
officials have obtained permission for the<br />
celebrations from the governors with a few<br />
exceptional refusals. It is un<strong>de</strong>rstood that<br />
the rulers of the country have chosen to<br />
play "puss in the Nevruz" rather than the<br />
usual Newroz tension. Have you not heard<br />
of the "puss in the Nevruz" game? If you<br />
have not, then l<strong>et</strong> us explore tog<strong>et</strong>her the<br />
rules of this game. Only a few years ago,<br />
the practice in Turkey was to issue one<br />
or<strong>de</strong>r after the other to p'revent the Newroz<br />
celebrations through nulitary and police<br />
measures. This year, though, the government<br />
has rolled up their sleeves for active<br />
Nevruz celebrations. This holiday, that has<br />
become a mutual show of strength<br />
throughout the years of war in the southeast,<br />
which the country's rulers admit<br />
although they call it "low <strong>de</strong>nsitY war," is<br />
now becoming the scene of som<strong>et</strong>imes<br />
laughably interesting <strong>de</strong>velopments. A<br />
holiday, which has been celebrated for<br />
millennia by many people of the world is<br />
being Turkified in front of everybody' s<br />
eyes.<br />
The Kurds have celebrated Newroz as<br />
the day when the ironmonger Kawa s<strong>et</strong> up<br />
a fire on the mountains to <strong>de</strong>clare to his<br />
people that he had smashed the head of the<br />
notorious tyrant Dahaq with his hammer.<br />
Although not with the same mythological<br />
content, Newroz, which means "the new<br />
day" has also been celebrated by many<br />
people around the world, particularly by<br />
the peoples of the Middle East, as the turn<br />
ot the season festival, a celebration of the<br />
coming spring, the rebirth of nature. The<br />
mentality which forba<strong>de</strong> such a holiday for<br />
many years is now pursuing one discovery<br />
after the other.<br />
Newroz has been changed to "Nevruz"<br />
to be reduced to an instrument of chauvin.<br />
istic nationalism. Nevruz is now claimed<br />
to be a holiday of the Turks to celebrate<br />
the day when they came out of their imaginary<br />
homeland "Ergenekon" behind the<br />
guiding female wolf Asena. But those<br />
who place this claim do so without thinking<br />
about a satisfactory answer to the question<br />
as to why should they sud<strong>de</strong>nly<br />
remember such an important day after so<br />
many thousands of years, and not before.<br />
What would they say in reply if someone<br />
asks to them, "what kind of Turks are<br />
you learning the date of coming out of<br />
Erg~nekon from the Kurds?" But they<br />
must have un<strong>de</strong>rstOOd the fact that nobody<br />
took them seriously enough to raise such<br />
questions, as an indication of common<br />
acceptance of their discovery, since they<br />
continue their way with brand new discoveries.<br />
This year' s discovery is in a pamphl<strong>et</strong><br />
published by the Ministry of Foreign<br />
Affairs Turkish Cooperation and<br />
Development Agency (TUCA) entitled<br />
"Nevruz Yenigun" in which a picture of<br />
Atatürk taken at a Nevruz celebration on<br />
21 March 1922 is printed. By referring to<br />
Atatürk, they must be thinking that nobody<br />
could dare to Counter their claims anymore.<br />
In fact, it is impossible not to take off<br />
our hat before this practice of the government.<br />
Those who suspect the Kemalism of<br />
this government should be ashamed of<br />
themselves. Who can suspect the loyalty<br />
of this government to Atatürk' s principles<br />
after witnessing their great discovery of<br />
another Turkish national holiday with<br />
strong refe~ences like a picture of Atatürk?<br />
Of course, m the meantime, those who<br />
would raise the questions like "if you were<br />
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