Turkish police have cracked down on ethnic Kurds celebrating Norouz in the eastern city of Van.

Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon at the Kurds celebrating the occassion on Friday. The violence reportedly started when security forces tried to stop the Kurds building a traditional bonfire outside the intercity bus terminal. The crowd resisted the police by reportedly flinging stones at them.Van is located 1,371 kilometers (851 miles) southeast of the capital, Ankara.

On March 19, 2015, clashes between Turkish riot police and Kurds during Norouz celebrations organized by the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party left at least five people injured in the southeastern city of Sirnak. Similar clashes broke out in Turkey’s southeastern city of Batman on the same day.

Norouz is one of the oldest and most cherished festivities celebrated in the Middle East and Central Asia (originally by the Persians) for at least 3,000 years.The International Day of Norouz was registered on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on February 23, 2010, and the festivities are now being celebrated in many countries as far away as the US and Canada.

In Turkey, the government legalized and renamed the celebration in 2000, establishing it as a Turkish celebration of spring as it coincides with the March (Northward) equinox.However, in the country the celebrations have frequently become the scene of clashes between police and Kurds over the past years. The Norouz celebrations are seen by the Turks as an important way for the Kurds to express their Kurdish identity and as a show of support for an independent Kurdish state.