afrinpost – Exclusive
For the third year in a row, the fires of Newroz has been absent from the mountains and hills of the occupied Afrin region in northern Syria, amid the policy of genocide pursued by the Turkish authorities against the remaining indigenous Kurds since March 2018.
In the context, afrinpost reporter in Bulbul district reported that some people tried to set fire on Mount Hawar in the vicinity of Sheikh village, as well as Mount Isse / Deke village and Mount Bilil/ Chobana village, marking the arrival of the National Day of Newroz, but the Turkish-backed militias were quick to extinguish the fires.
As for the region’s center, the network’s reporter observed that some people lit candles to celebrate the arrival of “Newroz” in the balconies of houses in the atmosphere of fear created by the Turkish forces, because in the past two years they carried out arrest campaigns against those who dared to light the symbol of the Kurdish national day or celebrate.
In the same context, activists from Afrin in countries of asylum and forced exile, and some also reside in Afrin, launched a campaign on social media, in which they emphasized that no Newroz brings them together with the killers of the people of Afrin, the rapists of women and the destroyers of the graves of ancestors.
The campaign came in response to the decision of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood coalition to make March 21 a holiday in the Turkish control areas in northern Syria, in order to celebrate Nowruz.
The statement added that the campaign comes as an expression of their refusal to the Turkish occupation and the Syrian Brotherhood militias using the symbolism of Newroz, indicating that the fire of Newroz will remain the fire of freedom and rebellion until the day comes, the fire of freedom will be ignited over Afrin’s mountains and plateaus, stressing that “Newroz is our not for occupiersr.”
