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After a great start with a huge rally in Amed with 1 million participants despite the heavy attacks of the police and the celebrations in Istanbul with city-wide clashes with the police, the Newroz celebrations continued throughout the whole week.
There have been rallies in more than 130 different cities and districts, including Batman, Mersin, Izmir, Ankara, Eskisehir, Sirnak, Hakkari, Dersim, Antep, Urfa, Mardin, Adana, Mus, Van, Agri and Ardahan. Totally hundreds of thousands of Kurds participated in the celebrations.{divide}
The Turkish state banned almost all the demonstrations and wages a broad repression wave this year. From the beginning of March, 1095 people have been arrested in the preparation process and during the demonstrations of Newroz. Only in the 4 days from March 18 to 21, 679 people were arrested; most of them during and after the demonstrations in Istanbul, Amed, Cizre, Batman and Izmir. One BDP member, HaciZengin was killed by the police in Istanbul, hundreds of people were injured and tens of them heavily injured.
Moreover, several newspapers and TV and radio broadcasters in Amed were raided by the police after the celebrations and their records were confiscated. The country-wide Daily newspaper OzgurGundem (Free Agenda) was banned for 1 month. The decision of the court has caused great reaction among the Kurdish, revolutionary and democratic organisations as well as intellectuals. It has been considered as a continuation of the banning of Newroz and a revenge attack.
Ahmet Turk, former MP and former co-president of BDP and presently co-president of the DTK , was beaten by a policeman during the clashes in Batman.
Together with these arrest and imprisonment wave on the occasion of Newroz celebrations, the number of those arrested for political reasons in the first 3 months of 2012 has raised to 2945. As an average, 36 people a day is being arrested for political reasons.
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