MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

 Amed (Diyarbakır)- The 9th Amed Theater Festival will be organized by the Amed City Theater from April 18 to April 27. Theater plays, including four women’s plays, in Sorani, Kurmanckî, Kurdish and Turkish languages will be performed at the municipal buildings after eight years, since the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) won municipalities in the local elections held on March 31, 2024.

The festival will kick off in the Iskender Pasha Mansion in Amed’s Sur district on April 18. Then, theater plays will be performed in the Çand Amed Congress Center and historic buildings in Sur.

NuJINHA spoke to Berfin Emektar, a member of the Amed City Theater, about the festival.

 ‘Many theater plays in different languages will be performed’

Speaking about the program of the festival, Berfin Emektar said, “This year, we will hold the festival by using buildings of the municipalities, as we did before the appointment of the mayors. 18 theater plays will be performed at the festival. 10 of the plays are in Kurdish, three in Sorani, one in Zazaki (Kurmancki), and five in Turkish. Four of these 18 plays are women’s plays.”

Berfin Emektar stated that they would say ‘No’ to the assimilation policy carried out by the appointed mayors. “We could not use the buildings of the municipalities due to the appointed mayors. At the festival, we will perform many plays in Sur and the congress center. One of the plays will be performed in the Surp Giragos Armenian Church. This festival is important to reflect Diyarbakır’s multicultural and multilingual identity.”

Theater groups from Kirkuk, Duhok, Urmia and Saqqez will also take to the stage at the festival.