Possible closure of political party dampens Nowruz for Turkey’s Kurds - Al-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Andrew Wilks

Andrew Wilks

Mar 29, 2022

A woman plays a daf drum as people peform the Halay folk dance during a gathering of Turkish Kurds for Nowruz celebrations marking the Persian New Year in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, March 21, 2022. — A woman plays a daf drum as people peform the Halay folk dance during a gathering of Turkish Kurds for Nowruz celebrations marking the Persian New Year in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, March 21, 2022. — Ilyas Akengin/AFP via Getty Images

ISTANBUL — As Kurds across Turkey flocked to celebrate the Nowruz spring festival, they did so under the shadow of a court case that threatens to close the political party representing many Kurdish hopes for the future.

Revelers dressed in colorful traditional clothes and waving red, green and yellow flags last week gathered at Nowruz celebrations in the southeastern heartland of Turkey’s Kurds as well as in cities such as Istanbul and Izmir in the west.

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