Turkish police broke up the Kurdish Newroz festivities
March 20, 2016
At least 10 people have been arrested after Turkish police broke up the Kurdish Newroz festivities in the town of Silopi. Officers deployed water cannon to disperse the crowd which gathered in defiance of Ankara’s ban on mass gatherings amid a crackdown on Kurdish militants. Several hundreds of people flocked to the streets of Silopi in southeastern Sirnak province for the Newroz (the Persian New Year also celebrated by the Kurds) festivities, organized by the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party despite a ban on public gatherings, local media reported.