The oldest festival (Mîhrîcana Govendên Kurdistan) to celebrate Kurdish culture in Europe kicks off today in Hannover, with the slogan "Our Culture is Our Identity".

23 groups from Germany, Switzerland and France will participate in the festival, which will be held for the 34th time this year and will last for two days.

Kurdish folk dances from different regions of Kurdistan will compete at the festival, while an award will be given in the field of researching Kurdish culture this year.

On the first day of the festival (today), young people will gather in front of the Hannover central train station with their colorful national clothes, shawls, scarves, drums and clarinets and join the traditional Mihrîcan march. The purpose of the march is to promote the ancient culture of Kurdistan.

In the competition to be held on Sunday, 28 May, 23 groups will perform traditional dances from different regions. The groups that will participate in Mîhrîcana Govenden Kurdistan are as follows:

Govenda Bêrîvan (Wesel) Semsûr region; Evîna Welat Bi Hevre (Basel) Bedlîs region, Koma Zarokên Rojê (Wesel) Amed; Koma Kaniya Spi (Celle) Amed; Koma Feraşîn (Berlin) Agirî; Koma Nûdem (Kiel) Riha; Govenda Arya-Mara (Cologne) Riha, Koma Demhat (Zürich) Wan; Koma Kulîlkên Welat (Duisburg) Midyad; Coma Martyr Delîl Çiyager (Berlin) Wan; Govenda Martyr Serhat (Lerthe) Wan; Govenda Rojbin (Paris) Riha; Koma Lales (Celle) Colemerg; Koma Şiyar (Salzgitter) Weranshar; Govenda Nergizên Çiya (Den Haag) Gimgim; Govenda Baran (Koln) Bedlis; Govenda Romani (Cologne) Qers; Govenda Ar (Wupertal) Cewlik; Coma Dersim (Dortmund) Agiri.