KURDS have renewed calls for the liberation of jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan as Newroz — Kurdish new year — celebrations are being planned in major towns and cities across the world.

The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) — an umbrella organisation which includes the PKK — said today that demands for his freedom would become “very strong” this year.

It paid tribute to the guerilla fighters waging a fierce resistance against Turkish armed forces in Iraqi Kurdistan and “our comrades in the dungeons” as it celebrated Kurdish identity.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the PKK — initially known as the Kurdish Revolutionaries — although it was not officially announced until November 1978.

It is credited with rejuvenating Kurdish identity, placing importance on Newroz as “the basis for the existence and strengthening of the Kurdish people.”

“Weakening Newroz means weakening the Kurdish identity and strengthening Newroz means strengthening it,” KCK said.

It was on the Kurdish new year — celebrated on March 21 — that PKK founding member Mazlum Dogan died after setting himself on fire in Turkey’s notorious Diyarbakir prison in 1982.

His death sparked the prison resistance movement and is believed to have led to the PKK decision to take up armed struggle against the Turkish state in 1984.

That conflict has seen at least 40,000 people killed in Turkey alone during three decades of war.

A tentative peace agreement collapsed in 2015 after the Turkish government walked away from talks with Mr Ocalan and pursued a renewed military solution to the so-called Kurdish question.

The KCK paid tribute to Mr Dogan and other Kurdish martyrs including Zekiye Alkan, Rahsan Demirel, Ronahi and Berivan, saying that 2022 would be “a year of great struggle” as it vowed to “crush fascism.”

“For 50 years, the Kurdish people have become the vanguard of the 20th century, resisting in the spirit of Newroz, and fighting for freedom and democracy in the Middle East,” it said.

Mass rallies will be held in Kurdish cities including Amed — the Kurdish name for Diyarbakir — which has become a focal point for the Newroz celebrations.

Kurds will also gather in Qandil in Iraqi Kurdistan, the home of the PKK headquarters.

In Britain the traditional Newroz festival will be held in Finsbury Park for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic, starting at 12pm on Sunday.