BERJÎN KARA

 Makhmur- The 74th birthday of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan was celebrated on April 4 by Kurdish people and their friends. While trees were planted in some places, festivals were organized in other places to mark his birthday.

 In Makhmur refugee camp, a celebration was organized for children on April 4. Children played, danced and attended many activities in the refugee camp. Newroz Tunç was one of the children who participated in the celebration. Her family was one of the forcibly displaced families from Northern Kurdistan to the refugee camp 30 years ago due to the Turkish attacks on their homeland. Although she never sees her family’s burned village in Northern Kurdistan, she always dreams of seeing it one day. She has listened to many stories from her family about her village in Northern Kurdistan. “I am told that our village was a beautiful village; however, it was burned down by the Turkish state,” she told NuJINHA.

Newroz made a maquette of her family’s burned village and she exhibited it at the celebration. “When the mothers living in the camp saw it, they were touched by it. They asked me how I made it and I told them that I made it with my sister. The mothers told me, ‘It is so beautiful and looks like their villages’. I feel happy to be able to make it beautiful.”