Ceremonial event in Syria’s Kobani literary festival concluded
KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – The first Kobani Literary Festival concluded on Thursday, honoring four winners, offering them the ceremonial prize of the festival.
The festival is held under the auspices of Culture Board in the Euphrates Region.
The Euphrates Region is an administrative division that includes the areas of Kobani, Raqqa, Ain Issa and the Turkish-occupied city of Tel Abyad, which is affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
Ahmad Dali, director of the festival, told North Press that the final ceremony included artistic, musical and lyrical sketches , as well as honoring four winners, who participated in the festival’s competitions, which included Arabic and Kurdish short stories and poetry.
“The festival also honored one of the educational figures in the city of Kobani,” Dali added.
He pointed out that the festival also honored the Kurdish writer Shahin Bakr Sorekli, whom the festival is named after, and distributed one of his books to the public for free.
Dali stated that the festival, over the seven days, included a book fair with the participation of several publishing houses and libraries, in addition to holding dialogue sessions on cinema, art, literature, media, poetry and translation.
A week ago, the first session of Literary Kobani Festival was opened at Baqi Khedo Center for Culture and Art in the city of Kobani.
The AANES was first formed in 2014 in the Kurdish-majority regions of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira in northern Syria following the withdrawal of the government forces. Later, it was expanded to Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) defeated ISIS militarily.
In 2014, Kobani suffered the woes of ISIS militants who prevented all kinds of cultural and literary activities. The city was liberated from ISIS in January 2015.