A Turkish court has sentenced 11 people to 10 months in prison each on charges of spreading terrorist propaganda during their participation in a 2025 Newroz celebration in southeastern Turkey, the Mezopotamya news agency reported Thursday.
The Hakkari High Criminal Court handed down the verdict in September over a March 20, 2025, celebration of Newroz, the Kurdish spring festival, in the district of Yüksekova. Those convicted were Fuat Eğe, an artist and master of ceremonies at the Mesopotamia Cultural Center (MKM), and 10 members of the event’s stage and technical teams.
Turkish courts generally suspend prison sentences of up to two years in similar cases, meaning those convicted do not serve time in prison unless they commit a similar offense within the next five years.
Eğe reportedly asked the crowd to observe a minute’s silence for those he described as “martyrs of democracy and freedom.” Prosecutors accused him of praising and legitimizing the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organization that includes the PKK.
The PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 but said in May 2025 it would disband and end its armed campaign as part of a renewed peace process.
Another defendant, Furkan Avci, was accused of singing along to a Kurdish song titled “Ez qurbana gerîlla” (I Would Sacrifice Myself for the Guerrilla). Prosecutors claimed that the song praised the PKK and other Kurdish militant groups and that Avci’s participation constituted terrorist propaganda.
Prosecutors sought penalties for Eğe and Avci under Article 7(2) of Turkey’s counterterrorism law, which criminalizes propaganda that legitimizes or praises a terrorist organization’s methods involving force, violence or threats, or encourages the use of those methods.
All 11 defendants denied the accusations. The report did not specify what the other nine were accused of doing.
Eğe told the agency that police summoned him for questioning and asked whom the minute’s silence was intended to honor. He said he had in mind figures including filmmaker Yılmaz Güney, singer Ahmet Kaya and PKK founding member Mazlum Doğan.
Eğe said observing a minute’s silence was common at public events and should not be considered a crime. He also criticized the convictions, saying they contradicted Turkey’s ongoing efforts to resolve the Kurdish conflict.
Newroz celebrations have repeatedly led to mass detentions in Turkey. In March 2026 police detained 170 people across several provinces on accusations of spreading terrorist propaganda, with 26 more detained in İstanbul days later. In March 2024, 166 people, including 38 minors, were detained during Newroz celebrations in Diyarbakır.
