Syria Diaries: Celebrating Nawruz in Efrin

Child at Nawruz, Efrin, Syria. 21/03/2013.

On a recent trip to the Aleppo region of Syria BEIRUTSTATEofMIND had the pleasure of joining over 60,000 Kurds celebrating the Ancient Persian, Zoro-Astrian New Year. Located only 40km from Aleppo, the largely tension free celebrations provided a complete contrast to the utter destruction plaguing Syria's second city, serving both as a reminder of the localized nature of Syria's civil conflict and the opportunities it has served for some communities to realize greater self-autonomy in the present. 

The article and some of the photographs one of the BEIRUTSTATEofMIND team penned can be found below:

When I first got to the large field overlooking the northern Syrian town of Afrin, I wasn’t quite ready for the scale of the celebration I had come to witness. Nawruz is the Ancient Persian New Year, the beginning of the Iranian calendar that is celebrated by the Kurdish diaspora as well as Persians and Zorastrians around the world on the vernal equinox. Afrin is only around 25 miles northwest of Aleppo, the rubble-strewn city at the center of Syria’s bloody civil war. But on March 21, the towns felt worlds apart.

The sight of 50,000 people clad in the traditional Kurdish colors of red, yellow, and green greeted me that morning. Many held flags emblazoned with the image of imprisoned Turkish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. A few female Kurdish security guards stooped on rooftops, Kalashnikovs in hand. But Nawruz was a largely tension-free celebration, filled with traditional Kurdish dancing and accompanied by calls for the realization of Kurdish democratic rights within a “new Syria.” The celebration was stunning and eerie in contrast to the ongoing destruction and loss of life plaguing Aleppo and the more vitriolic atmosphere of the Nawruz festivities across the border in Diyarbakir, Turkey. 

For more, hit the link, HERE.

Nawruz, Efrin, Syria. 21/03/2013.

Nawruz, Efrin, Syria. 21/03/2013.

Nawruz, Efrin, Syria. 21/03/2013.