CULTURE

Latest News

• AKP’s “genocide file” submitted to UNESCO 

  A file on the genocidal attacks in Kurdistan has been submitted to UNESCO officials in the meetings in Bern, Switzerland.
• Cologne ready for the 25th Kurdish Culture Festival 

  The 25th International Kurdish Culture Festival will kick off in Cologne on Saturday with the motto "Freedom for Öcalan, Status for Kurdistan, Freedom to the Middle East".
• The colorful Merîvan Street Theater Festival continues 

  The 12th edition of the Merîvan Street Theater Festival has left four days behind.
• Kolbers not forgotten in the Merîvan Street Theatre Festival 

  The International Street Theatre Festival held in Merîvan for the 12th time is in its third day. The festival started with a play thematising the lives of the kolbers (border porters) who are facing increasing deadly attacks by the Iranian regime.
• The ‘cursed’ stone of Kelashin 

  For centuries, the secret of the 2 meter tall inscribed stone in the Kelashin Passage, one of the most precipitous areas of the Zagros Mountains, was unknown.
• Udumbara flower seen in Urfa 

  Udumbara flower was seen on a pistachio seed in Karakoy, a district of Urfa province.
• ‘My art is my fight’ 

  Wood burning and relief artist Mehmet Selim Gökçen stated that as a Kurdish artist, he is standing against assimilation and fighting through his art.
• Elyewm: A new TV channel in Northern Syria 

  A new TV channel “Elyewm” started broadcast in Northern Syria.
• The voice of resistance: Dengê Avrîn 

  For four years Radio Dengê Avrîn (Voice of Avrîn) continues to broadcast despite Turkish attacks against Efrîn Canton.
• Van’s historic houses destroyed by Erdogan’s ‘urban progress’ 

  After surviving three large earthquakes and plundering after the Armenian Genocide, historic houses of Van are destroyed by Turkish government’s “urban progress” plans and replaced by multi storey modern buildings.
• Syriacs demand their properties back from Turkey 

  Assyrian-Syriac organisations sent a letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, demanding the return of nearly 50 properties of theirs usurped by the AKP.
• Tabqa's inhabitants revive the culture of fraternity 

  The Democratic Arab Youth Movement organised an event thematising fraternity and the common struggle between the Kurds and the Arabs, with the event being the first of its kind to be held for the last six years.
• People learning their mother tongue in their commune 

  In the Martyr Hecî Commune in a neighbourhood of Qamishlo, 50 children and 40 women are receiving Kurdish language classes.
• Destruction in Hasankeyf enters new phase 

  Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive stated that with the demolition of human formed rocks through explosives in Hasankeyf, the destruction of this 12.000 years old town at the Tigris River in the Kurdish Southeast of Turkey has entered a new phase.
• "Delila is an example with her struggle in every moment of life" 

  The Fertile Crescent Women’s Culture and Art Centre commemorated guerrilla and artist Delîla, and vowed to rekindle the path of the art of the democratic nation and a free and autonomous Kurdistan.
• One of the richest languages in the Middle East banned 

  HPG guerrilla Piran Medya stated that after joining the guerrilla ranks he came to understand the importance and meaning of languages the more.
• The bard of the Middle East: Aram Tigran 

  Aram Tigran, who gave life to famous songs like Ey "Dilberê and Bilbilo", kept on singing his songs until his last breath. His lifework comprises 500 songs in Armenian, Kurdish, Syriac, Arabic, Turkish languages. He was literally a ceremony of languages.
• “Turkey wants to clear the region of ancient peoples” 

  "Nothing has ever changed in the demands of the Syriac people from east to west: The Turkish state must be prosecuted for their crimes in history, and pay for it!"
• Kurdish female cartoonists in Iran facing death threats 

  In Iran the Kurdish female caricaturist Atena Farghadani and painter Atena Daemi are facing death threats due to the cartoons they draw critical of the system.
• Book on Rojava Revolution in Russian 

  A group of young people from various occupations in Russia visited Rojava (Western Kurdistan) and wrote a book on their observations on the life there and the revolution.
• Munzur Festival banned 

  Tunceli Governorate has banned the 17th Munzur Culture and Nature Festival set to take place in Dersim between 27-30 July 2017.
• Trustee removes the signboard at Cegerxwin Culture Centre in Amed 

  The intolerance of appointed trustees to usurped DBP municipalities towards statues and monuments in parks, gardens and common areas, as well as Kurdish names continue.
• Call for participation in the Mazlum Doğan Youth Festival 

  Ciwanên Azad UK has called on the Kurdish youth in Europe to ensure strong participation in the 20th Mazlum Doğan Youth Festival that will be held in Blegny, Belgium this year.
• Campaign for Kurdish traditional clothes launched in Doğubayazıt 

  A campaign to 'Wear regional traditional clothes and stand up for your culture' has been launched in Doğubayazıt district of Ağrı province.
• Europa Nostra statement on endangered heritage site of Hasankeyf 

  The Board of Europa Nostra deeply deplores the decision of the Turkish government to build a dam that would lead to the flooding of a site of world significance, without proper and transparent justification and without adequate compensation measures.