KURDS TURN OUT EN MASSE TO PARTY-SPONSORED NOW RUZ

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAMASCUS 001297

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

LONDON FOR TSOU, PARIS FOR ZEYA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/21/2016
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SY
SUBJECT: KURDS TURN OUT EN MASSE TO PARTY-SPONSORED NOW RUZ
CELEBRATIONS

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Stephen A. Seche for reasons 1.4(b)/(d
)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Thousands of Syrian Kurds turned out across
Syria on March 21 to celebrate the ancient holiday of Now
Ruz, the solar new year. Kurdish political parties organized
festivals throughout Syria, combining folk dancing and
Kurdish pop music with easily digestible political messages.
Although SARG security presence was heavy, thousands of
Kurdish families from an array of socioeconomic backgrounds
attended organized events in Kurdish strongholds. The only
reports of clashes with the SARG come from Aleppo, where
Kurdish sources claim 150-200 Kurds were arrested on March 20
while ringing in the new year. The festivals underlined the
level of Kurdish organizational effectiveness and
demonstrated the real, tangible potential for mass Kurdish
political action, painting a stark contrast to recent Arab
opposition-organized events. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Syrian Kurds celebrated the ancient holiday of Now
Ruz marking the start of spring and the beginning of the
solar year. Ringing in the vernal equinox on the evening of
March 20, celebrations continued on March 21, coinciding with
the Syrian public holiday of Mother's Day. According to
Luqman Ois, an Azadi Party and human rights activist, Hafez
al-Asad officially designated March 21 as a public holiday in
1987, following Kurdish demonstrations in 1986, succeeding in
giving Kurds a public holiday without having to call it a
Kurdish holiday.


3. (C) Folk festivals were held throughout Kurdish
strongholds in Syria, including three different sites in
Damascus, as well as in Aleppo, Qamishli, and Amuda. Poloff
attended one festival in the Damascene Tishreen district,
where tens of thousands of Kurds gathered in a park to
celebrate. The celebration's infrastructure was impressive,
particularly by Syrian standards, featuring concession
stands, at least three entertainment stages with good sound
systems, and VIP tents. The festival was organized and
sponsored by three Kurdish political parties, identified by
Ois as the Yekiti Party, Azadi Party, and Unity Party. Each
party managed the program for one stage, featuring a variety
of teenage and twentysomething musicians, folk dancers, pop
singers, and dramatic pantomimes. Many in the crowd, made up
in large part of young families and youth, carried scarves
and wore hats in the Kurdish national colors of yellow,
green, and red, with many young women also wearing
traditional Kurdish dresses. Poloff watched one dramatic
presentation, in which a group of twenty young adults
pantomimed the torture of four young Kurdish men, ending with
a group of young women carrying the injured offstage and the
body of one dead "martyr" carried by his comrades. On
another stage, a pop singer sang of "Kurdistan" while folk
dancers entertained the crowd. Meanwhile, multigenerational
families of various socioeconomic backgrounds picnicked
around the festival area. Streams of revelers entered and
exited the festival site, as traffic police officers watched
and directed traffic.


4. (C) Poloff observed a heavy security presence near two
of the festival sites in Damascus, where police officers were
lined up near the entrance of the festival with buses full of
other officers stationed nearby. Only a few officers were
visibly equipped with riot gear. However, inside the
festival, there was no visible police presence. In a press
release, the Kurdish Committee for Human Rights reported
arrests in Aleppo on the night of March 20, as revelers rang
in the New Year. Ois cited reports from contacts in Aleppo
that 150-200 Kurds had been arrested; however, these figures
have not been confirmed by other human rights organizations.



5. (C) COMMENT: The Now Ruz celebration in the Tishreen
district was an impressive, well-organized event, resembling
in many ways municipally-organized festivals in the U.S. or
Europe. The organizers demonstrated a high level of
political sophistication and an understanding of how to
package their political agenda in entertainment for the
consumption of a young, vibrant audience. Particularly
surprising is that the authorities even allowed this
agitprop-laden folk festival to take place, considering it
was organized by three of the most radical Kurdish opposition
political parties. While the Kurdish opposition may
exaggerate the number of their official party members, their
ability to mobilize the street is indeed a real, tangible
capability that seems to have earned, at least on this day,
SARG respect.
SECHE