KURD-A Documentation
March 10, 1995

"The German State Should Not Attack The Newroz Celebrations!"

Ali Garzan, the European Representative of the National Liberation Front 
of Kurdistan (ERNK), issued the following press statement concerning the 
upcoming Newroz celebrations:

	The Kurdish people are looking forward with great pleasure to a 
new Newroz celebration. The March 21 Newroz festival, which has been 
celebrated for centuries, will be celebrated by Kurds again this year. In 
our history, the Turkish state has prevented our traditional celebration 
of resistance and responded to it with massacres.
	The Kurds in Germany have always peacefully celebrated Newroz. 
The Newroz celebrations in 1994 were very eventful, however, because of 
the bans and the anti-democratic attacks by the German state.
	As a result of the police attacks, people were arrested - 
regardless of whether they were women or children - and many patriots 
were injured. The two brave Kurdish women, Ronahi and Berivan, protested 
these attacks by Germany's interior minister Kanther by burning 
themselves to death.
	The Kurdish people would like to celebrate Newroz in halls and in 
city squares without any difficulties. At the moment, however, the police 
are preventing people from renting out spaces to Kurds. We call on the 
German authorities not to attack the Newroz celebrations. The German 
authorities bear all the responsibility for any developments resulting 
from one-sided police attacks, which we don't wish to happen. Germany 
should not sink to the same level as the fascist-racist Turkish state, 
which bans the language, the culture, the festivals, and the traditions 
of the Kurdish people.
	The continued attacks on and closing down of Kurdish associations 
prove that Germany, just like Turkey, is following a militarist line of 
violent policies with respect to the Kurdish question. This violence has 
led to hundreds of Kurdish villages being reduced to ashes and many of 
our people being massacred.
	Because of its military and economic aid to Turkey, Germany is 
jointly responsible for the dirty war in Kurdistan. As if that were not 
enough, the German government even carries out these violent policies in 
Germany.
	Newroz is the New Year's celebration of the Kurds. It would be in 
Germany's interest to start this new year by lifting its bans and ceasing 
with its militarism. As we have often stated, Germany should not stand in 
the way of the Kurds, rather it should use its influence to make Turkey 
accept a democratic-political solution to the Kurdish question.

ERNK European Representation