Invitation to Newroz 2013 Celebrations in Finsbury Park, London N4
Sunday 24 March 2013, 1pm – 7pm
Come and join us to celebrate the Newroz Festival – Kurdish New Year – which will be taking place in Finsbury Park this coming Sunday afternoon to early evening.
Newroz is an ancient annual festival celebrated on 21 March in Kurdistan to usher in the spring. Throughout Kurdistan millions of people gather each year to enjoy music, food and dance, and to celebrate Kurdish cultural traditions. It is a family holiday but unfortunately, far too often in Turkey these occasions have been marred by violence as the authorities seek to repress Kurdish self-expression.
In London, the spirit of Newroz is kept alive by the large Kurdish community who organise a variety of events across London. Each year, these events provide a rare opportunity for Kurdish families and others to come together and celebrate their rich culture and heritage, in a city that has offered them refuge from continuing political and cultural repression at home.
This year, the celebrations take place in the aftermath of the murders in January of three leading Kurdish women activists in the centre of Paris which still remain unexplained. These appalling murders shocked Kurds everywhere and coincided with the start of the peace talks between the Turkish government and jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.
While real prospects of peace are beginning to emerge, a crackdown on Kurdish political organisations continues with mass trials of lawyers, journalists, elected representatives of the BDP and other professionals inside Turkey as the authorities press ahead with attempts to criminalise Kurdish civil and political groups using the country’s draconian anti-terrorist laws.
With these many hopes and uncertainties in the background, the Newroz Festival this year will enable the Kurdish community to renew its determination to win lasting peace and justice.
We therefore hope that you will be able to join us for this day of celebration which will be an opportunity to listen to Kurdish music and show solidarity with our people’s hopes for the future.
Kind regards,
Akif Rizgar Wan
UK representative, Kurdistan National Congress
knklondon@gn.apc.org Tel 07535 982 760
Kurdish Federation UK Fedbir <fedbir@gmail.com>
Contact: Turkan Ozcan
turkanbudak@hotmail.co.uk
Mobile 07889 754086