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In Istanbul 300.000 Kurdish and Turkish workers and labourers met at Kazlicesme, Istanbul, to celebrate Newroz. At the rally the colours yellow, red and green were emphasized and the demand of the Kurdish people for peace and freedom was stressed on again. Besides PKK and Ocalan posters there were also posters carried of Mazlum Dogan and Zilan, who had become martyrs in the Kurdish national struggle; Tuncay Yildirim who lost his life in the death fast 2001 on the day of Newroz as well as Che and Mao representing the international level. The mass constantly shouted the slogans "It`s been enough", "The PKK is the people, the people are here ' and "Greetings, greetings, thousand greetings to Imralı."
ESP , EMEP , SGD , HOC as revolutionary-democratic organisations and the unions Limter-Is , Tekstil-Sen and KESK branches` platform that were among those organising the Newroz celebrations this year.
At the rally the ESP opened the banner read "Frredom for peace, equality for brotherhood" and the banner "Long live Newroz" in Kurdish. The ESP raised its demand of a labourer solution to the Kurdish question. Due to the police attacks, there were more than 200 people arrested in Istanbul during the celebrations. While the police surrounded Kazlicesme, the place of the Newroz celebration, with tanks, many cars on their way to Kazlicesme were arbitrarily stopped. In the speeches held in Kurdish and Turkish it was emphasized again that the military operations will not bring anything. In the speech held in the name of DTP Istanbul, the government was urged to sit down at the table with Ocalan. The greeting message of DTP co-chair Nurettin Demirtas, who had been imprisoned for more than 3 months, was greatly applauded by the mass. DTP deputy Emine Ayna declared that with the Ergenekon operation carried out recently the state wants to show its "just" face. She also said that the Kurds had been on the streets on March 8 against sexual exploitation, that they were on the streets on Newroz against national exploitation and that they will be on the streets on Mayday demanding an end to class exploitation.
In Izmir the police had started a couple of days before Newroz to terrorise the people and surround the labourers` quarters. The police also distributed leaflets saying that the Newroz celebration at Gundogdu Square was banned by the governor and aimed at frightening the people. Despite that, 5000 people gathered in front of the local DTP office to celebrate Newroz. After the celebration, the mass wanted to march towards Gundogdu Square when they were attacked by the police with truncheons and gas bombs. More than 250 people were arrested, among them also DTP Izmir chair Mehmet Bayraktar who was later sent to prison. In the following days the arrested were not allowed to meet their lawyers. To answer these attacks, the masses shouted the slogans "Newroz will be lighted at Gundogdu", Long live our leader Apo" in Kurdish and "The PKK is the people, the people are here." Many democratic organisations, parties and unions, among them the ESP, CHD, DTP and EMEP protested against the brutality of the police by organising an action on March 24 at the Human Rights Association. At the press conference they demanded the resignation of the Minister of the interior and the governor of Izmir. In Adana 50.000 people joined the Newroz celebrations shouting the slogan "It`s been enough" in Kurdish against the military opearions. The ESP carried the banner read "Labourer solution to the Kurdish question / Freedom for peace, equality for brotherhood" and posters of Tuncay Yildirim, Mazlum Dogan and Cengiz Soydas. In Ankara 4000 people of different organisations, among them the DTP, ESP, EMEP and Partizan celebrated Newroz shouting slogans in Kurdish and Turkish. The SGD activists opened the banner read "No barricades to brotherhood, Newroz piroz be", "Youth are future, future is socialism" and "Equality, brotherhood, freedom to the Kurdish nation".
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