Newroz Piroz Be! Every year on March 21st, the Kurdish people celebrate Newroz. In the Kurdish language, Newroz means "new day", by which the Kurds mean the first day of spring. The Kurdish calendar begins on this day. Newroz, therefore, is the new day, the first day of spring, the first day of the new year. The Kurdish nation has been celebrating Newroz since the time of ancient history. This tradition dates back to the myth of Kawa the Blacksmith. On March 21st in the year 612 B.C., Kawa killed the Assyrian tyrant Dehak and liberated the Kurds and many other peoples in the Middle East. Dehak was an evil king who represented cruelty, abuse, and the enslavement of peoples. People used to pray every day for God to help them to get rid of Dehak. On Newroz day, Kawa led a popular uprising and surrounded Dehak's palace. Kawa then rushed passed the king's guards and grabbed Dehak by the neck. Kawa then struck the evil tyrant on the head with a hammer and dragged him off his throne. With this heroic deed, Kawa set the people free and proclaimed freedom throughout the land. A huge fire was light on the mountain tops to send a message: firstly to thank God for helping them defeat Dehak, and secondly to the people to tell them they were free. This is where the tradition of the Newroz fire originates. Today, Newroz is not just a day for remembering, it is also a day for protest and resistance against the oppression which the Kurdish people continue to suffer from. Since the recent struggle for national liberation began, some Kurdish martyrs used their own bodies to carry the flames of Newroz, including Mazlum Dogan and the woman named Zekiye, who burned themselves to death to protest against the barbarism inflicted on the Kurds by the Turkish government. And last year, in 1994, Ronahi and Berivan burned themselves to death in Germany to protest the interior ministry's decision to ban the PKK/ERNK more than 30 other Kurdish organizations and to protest the violent attacks by German police on Kurdish Newroz celebrations. In Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, resistance actions from the civilian population have given the Newroz festival new life. But year after year, the Turkish state reacts to Kurdish cries for self-determination with violence and massacres. During Newroz in 1992, demonstrations and celebrations were attacked by the Turkish military and more than 100 people were killed. Shortly before Newroz in 1993, PKK General Secretary Abdullah Ocalan announced a unilateral cease-fire to initiate a political dialogue with the Ankara government and to prevent a repeat of the massacres in 1992. But despite this, a Newroz festival in Adana was attacked by the Turkish state and 4 people were killed and 54 Kurdish villages were destroyed by Turkish bombardments. Newroz 1994 coincided with Ankara's attempts to hold local elections in the civil war provinces. But after the offices of the Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP) were repeatedly bombed and several DEP officials murdered, the DEP pulled out of the elections, although they surely would have won an absolute majority if the elections had been fair. International observer delegations reported wide-spread human rights violations during Newroz 1994. It is important that the international public recognize the realities of Turkish state terrorism. In the last few years, more than 2,000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed by the Turkish military and more than 3 million Kurds have been forced to become refugees. And what about democracy in Turkey? The Kurdish DEP party MPs, who were officially elected to the Turkish Parliament, saw their party banned in 1994 and their constitutional immunity lifted. One DEP MP, Mehmet Sincar, was murdered. Six managed to escape to Europe. But seven others, including Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish woman ever elected to the Turkish Parliament, faced the death penalty last December in front of Turkey's highest court before being given jail terms as long as 15 years. What was their crime? They were Kurds who tried to defend the Kurdish people's basic democratic rights. Democracy to Turkey, however, means the imprisoning, torturing, and killing of journalists (in the last three years alone, 32 journalists and newspaper distributors have been killed in Turkey, the country which also has the highest number of journalists in prison, 74), the bombing and closure of all pro-Kurdish news agencies - such as Ozgur Gundem (Free Agenda) and Ozgur Ulke (Free Land), whose offices were completely destroyed in a bomb attack in December 1994 before being officially banned in February 1995 - and the elimination of Kurdish lawyers, intellectuals, and human rights workers. All of these activities are sanctioned by Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. This is how Turkey fulfills its promise to the West to promote democracy and respect human rights. Newroz 1995 started off with bad news for the Kurdish people. The Canadian government announced that it plans to sell 39 CF-5 warplanes to Turkey, planes which will certainly be used to bomb Kurdish civilians. And on March 20, the day before Newroz, Turkey launched the biggest military operation in its history. At this moment, more than 50,000 Turkish troops are in South Kurdistan. Turkish warplanes are bombing refugee camps throughout South Kurdistan, and hundreds of refugees and civilians have been arrested. It seems that Tansu Ciller and Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein, with the support of the United States and other NATO countires, have made a plan to wipe out Kurdish autonomy in South Kurdistan and crush the Kurdish national liberation struggle. Turkey's invasion of South Kurdistan - an area which is supposed to be a UN-protected "safe haven" for Kurdish people - shows that the Turkish government is not interested in dialogue; they continue to insist on a military solution to the Kurdish question. At present, the world's 40 million Kurds, the largest people in the world without their own state, are a persecuted nation living under foreign occupation. The Kurdish situation today is similar to their situation back in the days when King Dehak enslaved the ancient Kurds. Saddam Hussein of Iraq is much worse than Dehak. He is carrying out genocide against the Kurdish people in Iraq. The army and police in Turkey are no better than Dehak's thugs. And officials in Iran exploit and enslave the people of the Kurdish regions of Iran just as Dehak's agents did in the past. Kurdistan must be free. The Kurdish people need a voice in international affairs. With the banning of the Democracy Party in 1994 and the imprisonment and exile of its MPs, the Kurdish people decided to find a way to represent themselves. With all democratic channels and freedom of expression blocked in Turkey, the Kurds have decided to establish a Parliament of Kurdistan in Exile. This Parliament will be opened in Brussels, Belgium on April 12. The opening of this Parliament is proof that the Kurdish people want to find a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question. Let us raise the flag of freedom and justice! We cannot remain silent in the face of the massacres which the Kurdish people are suffering. Now is the time for all people to show their solidarity and support the national liberation struggle in Kurdistan. This struggle is not just for Kurdistan, it is for all humanity. No one can be free until we all are free. We are calling on everyone to celebrate Newroz according to its original spirit of resistance. Newroz does not just belong to the Kurdish people, it is a possession for all oppressed peoples and for all of humanity. We believe the spirit and actions of Newroz can give strength to all humanity to end injustice and oppression. We say "Newroz Piroz Be! - Happy Newroz!" to all our people and to all our friends and to all of humanity. Newroz Piroz Be! Long live the Parliament of Kurdistan in Exile! Long live the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)! Long live the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK)! Long live the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK)! Long live Serok Apo!