AL BASOUTA, Syria (AP) — Abdul Rahman Omar fled his village in the Afrin district in northern Syria eight years ago as a Turkish offensive against Kurdish fighters swept across the area.
Now he is among hundreds of Kurds who have recently returned to Afrin. He joined neighbors in celebrating the spring festival of Nowruz for the first time since their return from exile, and for the first time after the government declared the celebration a national holiday.
Nowruz, the Farsi-language word for “new year,” is an ancient Persian festival that is also celebrated by Kurds in Syria, Turkey and Iraq as well as Iran. It is characterized by colorful street festivals and torch-bearing processions winding their way into the mountains. The 3,000-year-old festival is rooted in the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism and is marked by people across faiths including Zoroastrians, Muslims, Christians, Jews and those of the Baha’i faith as well as by millions in the diaspora.
Omar joined a row of young men and women in a line dance to a pounding beat Friday evening and then processed up into the hills above the village of al-Basouta. They hoisted torches and Kurdish flags and spelled out the word “raperin,” meaning “uprising” in Kurdish, with flames.
The initially peaceful holiday celebration was marred by tensions between Arabs and Kurds in some areas Saturday after images circulated on social media of a man taking down the Syrian flag during Nowruz festivities in the northeastern city of Kobani.
The return follows a deal to int …