Preparatory Committee member for the 25th International Kurdish Culture Festival, Yezda Kajîn, announced that all preparations for the festival have been completed, and invited the Kurdistan people and their friends to join the great event.

As the longest and greatest event of the Kurdistan peoples in Europe, the International Kurdish Culture Festival will be held in Cologne, Germany, with the motto "Freedom for Öcalan, Status for Kurdistan, Freedom to the Middle East".

The festival serves also as a place to issue important statements concerning the Kurdish political agenda, and to demonstrate Kurdish culture. The program of the festival has been prepared fully.

The event will take place on 16 September (Saturday) in Deutzer Werft, 50679 Cologne, at 16.00. Democratic Kurdish Society Centers will open stands there to bring Kurdish culture to the attention of the people.

Model of a Kurdistan village with historical items will be exhibited by Kurdish artist Amele to offer the new generations an insight on the Kurdish culture and way of life.

Kurdistan people will go to the festival from Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Britain, Italy and many other European countries by means of bus, train and cars. The International Kurdish Culture Festival has been organised by Democratic Kurdish Society Center, which has 250 separate institutions under its roof in Germany.

CALL FOR STRONG PARTICIPATION IN THE FESTIVAL

Kurdish Women's Movement in Europe (TJK-E) activist and member of the Preparatory Committee, Yezda Kajîn, stressed the importance and mission of the International Kurdish Culture Festival, and said: "Our festival became a traditional event and the main place where we all come together. Our people gather each year on that occasion, they both stand up for their values and express reactions to the cultural and political genocide exerted on them. This year they will gather by tens of thousands with the same premise, to stand up against the isolation imposed on Öcalan, and demand status for Kurdistan alike democracy for the Middle East."

Kajîn invited all Kurds that live in Europe to the festival, and said, "Just like our people participated in this event all the years before by conserving and displaying their color, culture and wish, it is necessary that they join the festival in masses this year as well. Let us all come together on this great occasion, no matter where in Europe we live."

WOMEN SHOULD TAKE THE LEAD

Yezda Kajîn underlined the role of women within the Kurdish freedom struggle, and continued: "There is no doubt that women bear the responsibility to take a leading role for this festival as they did before. Women have always owned their true identity and led the actions at all times of our struggle. They undertook huge responsibilities. For that reason I repeat that women should play their role this year as well. They should lend color to the festival with their traditional Kurdish garments."

FESTIVAL PROGRAM

The card of the festival program lists the following details:

Speeches by politician Hatip Dicle, KNK’s Tahir Kemalizade and Rojava representatives. Music and performance: Cemîl Koçgirî, Tehsîn Xidir, Orchestra MA, Jala, music group Berxwedan (Resistance), music group Dengê Mezopotamyayê (Voice of Mesopotamia) and halay dance performances by TEV-ÇAND (Mesopotamian Democratic Movement for Culture and Arts).