Newroz in Gothenburg, Sweden, was celebrated with two separate events at the weekend.

The first celebration took place at Gustav Adolf Square in the city center. Kurds and their friends gathered in the square and lit the Newroz fire.

Kurdish folk songs and anthems were sung by Kurds and the hunger strike resistance was commended as was Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan.

In the second celebration, in a hall rented for the occasion, Mufide Karamanoğlu and Lehun Lehune, co-chairs of Gothenburg Kurdish Democratic Center, underlined in their speeches that the Turkish state's oppression and attacks against the Kurdish people did not manage to stop the struggle of the Kurdish people.

The co-chairs added that isolation imposed on the Kurdish people’s leader will never be accepted and saluted all activists on hunger strike and in particular HDP Hakkari MP Leyla Güven.

The co-chairs called on Sweden and the European Union end their silence and urge Turkey to end the isolation imposed on Öcalan.

The Gothenburg Left Party representative commended the Syrian Democratic Forces, the YPG and YPJ that defeated ISIS mercenaries in Rojava. The Left Party also asked the removal of the PKK from the European list of terrorist organizations and called for the demands of the hunger strikers to be accepted and isolation imposed on Öcalan lifted.