Nevruz/Nevrus/Newroz etc is indeed the Spring Equinox festival, celebrated across a swathe of countries and ethnicities from Thrace to, AFAIK, Xinjiang. It's probably Zoroastrian in origin, which is why they're celebrating it in Afghanistan for the first time this year after the Taliban banned it for being un-Islamic.
The PKK tried to make it a kind of Kurdish national holiday back in the 1980s, and it used to be marked by big and frequently bloody demonstrations. The government, in an unusual display of common sense (by the standards of governments), solved that problem by celebrating Nevruz officially and inviting delegates from all the Central Asian countries. The sight of almond-eyed Türkmens and Özbeks in national dress (usually baggy trousers and half a sheep on your head) kind of took the wind out of the sails.
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malionette
Sarl, mate...
Date: 2002-03-21 08:29 am (UTC)(Have you read 'The Towers of Trebizond' by Rose McCaulay ? It's a good picture of the turkish people, and a hoot, to boot !)
no subject
Date: 2002-03-21 08:31 am (UTC)I read this: "It was Nevrus Day, a day of celebration for the Kurds leaving Turkey"
Is that really what it is about?
As an aside, When I put "Nevrus Turkey" into google, it says "Did you mean 'Nervous Turkey?'" *grin*
Ooops !
Date: 2002-03-21 08:54 am (UTC)I assumed it meant the spring equinox...
*blush*
no subject
Date: 2002-03-21 10:42 am (UTC)The PKK tried to make it a kind of Kurdish national holiday back in the 1980s, and it used to be marked by big and frequently bloody demonstrations. The government, in an unusual display of common sense (by the standards of governments), solved that problem by celebrating Nevruz officially and inviting delegates from all the Central Asian countries. The sight of almond-eyed Türkmens and Özbeks in national dress (usually baggy trousers and half a sheep on your head) kind of took the wind out of the sails.