TEHRAN, 21 March 2004 — Iranians and Kurds saw in their New Year this weekend with good cheer or gloom — depending on the political climate of their country.
While Iranians began holiday trips or hosted family gatherings, Kurds in Syria canceled their Nowroz celebrations after the killing of 25 people in riots, and some Kurds in Turkey threw stones at police.
“I feel happy and proud to observe Nowroz, a festival we have inherited from our ancestors,” said Hamid Doosti, a clerk in Tehran. “It’s our identity, our history.”
Nowroz dates to the pre-Islamic religion of the Zoroastrians. Celebrations began Tuesday evening in Iran where people jumped over bonfires in public parks to symbolize the purification of the soul for the New Year.
The actual new year began 10:19 a.m. (0649 GMT) yesterrday, according to the Iranian calendar. For Kurds in Turkey and Syria, the year begins today.
Turkish Kurds threw stones at police in the southern city of Adana on Thursday, and in the eastern city of Van on Friday, when police tried to enforce a ban on early celebrations of Nowroz. No reason was given for the ban.
The semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported at least six people were wounded in the clashes, including a teenager who was shot in the head in Adana.
In Syria, Kurds said they would not celebrate Nowroz this year following five days of riots in four northern towns between Kurds, on the one hand, and police and members of the Arab majority on the other hand.
Kurds in Qamishli, where the clashes began in a football stadium, said they planned to hang black ribbons in mourning outside their homes and on their cars today. The government said 25 people had been killed in the unrest. Kurdish officials said more than 100 people were wounded and at least 400 were detained. The government gave no figures for wounded and detained. The riots shocked Syria, and led to calls for national unity from state-run media and religious leaders.
In Iran, people thronged the shopping precincts on Friday evening to buy flowers, goldfish, sweets and dried fruits - essential parts of feasting and house decoration at Nowroz.
Young members of families visited their elders across Iran yesterday. It is a tradition that adults give children new banknotes. As government offices close for a week, Nowroz allows Iranians to go on holiday. Most Iranians take two weeks off for Nowroz.
Hard-line clerics discourage Nowroz as a pagan festival. But their word is not heeded. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who supports the hard-liners politically, acknowledged Nowroz by making a televised address to the nation. He said the New Year would be one in which all “branches of power respond to the nation.”
In his Nowroz greetings, President Mohammad Khatami said he hoped the arrival of spring would bring moderation to Iran. “Spring means the triumph of moderation over wrath and extremism, something we need more today than at any other time,” Khatami said on television.
Earlier this week, the president conceded defeat on two bills that had been integral to his policy of trying to introduce greater freedom in the Islamic state. Iran is preparing for the March 27 visit of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog that criticized Iran earlier this month for failing to disclose some of its atomic activities.
