The 32nd International Kurdish Culture Festival, organized annually by Kurds living in Europe, was held in Frankfurt last Saturday, 21 September with the slogan “Let's break the isolation and occupation, Freedom for Leader Apo”. At the festival, attended by thousands of people, YPG, YPJ, YBŞ, PKK flags, and posters of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan and PKK's leading cadres Mazlum Doğan and Zilan (Zeynep Kınacı) were carried.

Messages of resistance and solidarity were given against the assimilation and oppression policies targeting the Kurdish people at the festival. All the speeches and messages saluted the guerrilla resistance against the occupation, and a call was made to increase the struggle for the physical freedom of Kurdish People's Leader Öcalan.

Artists Şehrîbana Kurdî and Ferzadê Muradî from the Rastak group, who took the stage at the festival, spoke to ANF.

Artist Şehrîbana Kurdî congratulated all Kurdish people on the 32nd International Kurdish Culture Festival, and said: "I hope we can achieve our unity and brotherhood. Today, the pressures on Kurdish culture and art, and in particular on the Kurdish language, continue to increase in Kurdistan. As an artist who has been involved in these activities for years, I can say that as long as the Kurdish people are not united, we cannot be successful in life, politics and art. This is the reality of the Kurdish people. We must resist. If we do not resist the attacks, we will be defeated. Tens of thousands of people participated in the International Kurdish Culture Festival with great enthusiasm and defended the Kurdish language, Kurdish culture and Kurdish existence. Both the people and all organizations from the 4 parts of Kurdistan should support the unity of the Kurdish people. We should join hands and achieve our unity as soon as possible."

The artist continued: "The bureaucracy is working to prevent this unity, but the Kurdish people have to resist and fight for their language and existence. There has been a danger of a birakûjî (fratricide) war for years.

My call to all Kurds is this: The enemy has divided us into 4 parts, but let's not be divided among ourselves, let's support each other. We are a people. We have our land, our country, our language, our culture. I condemn those who caused the Birakujî war. I hope this call reaches all our leaders, all our organizations. Enough is enough! How long will this situation continue? We were young, there was war, there was Birakujî, there was evil. We want peace, brotherhood and equality. My message to our society is to support our people, organizations, leaders, culture, art, language. If we cannot do this, we cannot stand on our own feet."

It is important that such festivals continue

Ferzadê Muradî from the Rastak group said: "I am very happy to be part of the Kurdish Culture Festival in Frankfurt and to be with great Kurdish artists. We were very well received by the people. We are happy to be here. We are very proud that the Kurdish people follow Rastak music. My mother and father are Kurdish, and my brother, who is the soloist and instrumentalist of the group, is also Kurdish. I hope these festivals continue in this way and bring different Kurdish cultures closer together. Because such festivals are a bridge between Kurdish cultures."

The first International Kurdish Culture Festival was held in 1992 in the Ruhr Stadium in Bochum, Germany. The festival, which has been held since then, could not be held only in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.