DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, March 21 (AFP) Turkish police detained more than 100 people
 in Istanbul during celebrations Wednesday to mark the Kurdish New Year, Newroz, but
 festivities in the mainly Kurdish-populated southeast went off peacefully.

 Anti-riot police clamped down on some 200 people who took to the streets of Istanbul shouting
 slogans in support of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its condemned leader
 Abdullah Ocalan after a peaceful celebration in a park in the Topkapi district of the city's
 European area.

 Police fired shots into the air to disperse the group and detained 116 of the demonstrators, who
 disrupted traffic and smashed the windows of cars and shops, the Anatolia news agency said.

 The violence came despite an appeal issued by Ocalan from his solitary cell on a Turkish prison
 island through his lawyer for Kurds to mark Newroz "in a spirit of peace, unity and brotherhood."

 The PKK took up arms in 1984 for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast, but after Ocalan's capture
 the group, at Ocalan's urging, declared an end to its campaign in September 1999.

 Despite the incidents in Istanbul, about 75,000 Kurds gathered outside Diyarbakir, the regional
 capital of the southeast, and held joyous celebrations for the Newroz feast, which has been
 marred by violent anti-state demonstrations and bloodshed in the past.

 A peaceful atmosphere prevailed at the festivities, organized by the pro-Kurdish People's
 Democracy Party (HADEP) for the second year in a row.

 As the Kurds danced and sang, waving HADEP flags, some 70 representatives of international
 human rights organizations observed the celebrations, for which security had been stepped up
 all around the predominantly Kurdish southeast.

 "Newroz is a feast of peace and fraternity," HADEP chairman Murat Bozlak told the crowd. "We
 are in favour of democracy and dialogue."

 On the eve of the feast in other parts of the country, several groups staged demonstrations
 against the state.

 In the Mediterrenean city of Mersin, some 300 people shouted slogans in favor of the PKK and
 hurled stones at the police, the NTV news channel reported.

 Security forces detained 49 people, 32 of whom were released shortly afterwards, and a police
 officer sustained a light injury, NTV said.

 In nearby Antalya, four people were detained after protestors stoned a police vehicle, Anatolia
 news agency reported.

 Seven people, including two children, were injured as police intervened at an open-air Newroz
 celebration in the southeastern city of Siirt, which did not have a permission from authorities.

 The governor of Istanbul has also denied HADEP permission to hold a Newroz meeting in the
 city, which is home to hundreds of thousands Kurdish migrants from the southeast, a party
 spokesman told AFP Wednesday.

 In the past, Newroz has triggered deadly clashes between troops and PKK militants.

 About 50 Kurds were killed by security forces in 1992 during violent demonstrations in the
 region.

 But since the PKK's truce announcement, the tense atmosphere and normally heavy fighting in
 the region has subsided considerably.

 In response, authorities have allowed HADEP to organize Newroz festivities and have sought to
 ensure the day passes peacefully by allocating festival areas and even distributing wood for the
 traditional Newroz fires.

 Newroz, a pagan festival of Zoroastrian origin, marks the awakening of nature at the March 21
 equinox.

 It is also celebrated in Iran and other Muslim communities in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com