There are in excess of a hundred million of Persians worldwide. They are a disparate group, yet they are united through their core beliefs. They are a group whose origins are found several millennia in the past, their ethnicity often inextricably linked with their heritage. Hitherto, however, there has been no way to easily unify them and their common cultural, linguistic and historical heritage online. Nowruz, the Persian New Year, and the strong cultural denotation it has for Persians, is one yearly cultural event that achieves this aim offline. This unification can, for the first time, now be translated into online unity through the .NOWRUZ gTLD.
Nowrūz (meaning ʺ[The] New Dayʺ) is the name of the Persian New Year in Persian (Jalali) calendars and the corresponding traditional celebrations. Nowruz is also widely referred to as the ʺPersian New Yearʺ. The word Nowruz, marks the first day of spring and is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox, which usually occurs on 21 March. It is celebrated as the beginning of the new year by more than 300 million people all around the world and has been celebrated for over 3000 years in the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East and other regions.
Today, the festival of Nowruz is celebrated in many countries that were territories of, or influenced by, the Persian Empire: Iran, Various Iranian Peoples including Kurds, Afghanistan, parts of the Middle East, as well as in the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. It is also celebrated by the Zoroastrians as well by certain Iranic inhabitants in Pakistanʹs Chitralregion and Northern Areas. It is also celebrated by the Iranian immigrants from Shiraz in Zanzibar. it is called Nevruz in Turkic, Uyghurs who live in Northwestern China call it ʺNoruzʺ, and it is called Sultan Nevruz in Albanian. In Kurdish communities located in parts of western Iran, the holiday is referred to as Newroz, which is a variety of the Persian word Nowruz. The variety Nawroz is also an East Persian word and is used in the Persian speaking regions of Central Asia.
The term Nowruz first appeared in written Persian records in the 2nd century AD, but it was also an important day during the time of the Achaemenids c. 548–330 BC), where kings from different nations under the Persian empire used to bring gifts to the Emperor, also called King of Kings (Shahanshah), of Persia on Nowruz. The significance of Nowruz in the Achaemenid empire was such that the great Persian king Cambyses IIʹs appointment as the king of Babylon was legitimized only after his participation in the New Year festival (Nowruz).
Nowruz plays a significant role in strengthening the ties among peoples based on mutual respect and the ideals of peace and good neighborliness. Its traditions and rituals reflect the cultural and ancient customs of the civilizations of the East and West, which influenced those civilizations through the interchange of human values. Celebrating Nowruz means the affirmation of life in harmony with nature, awareness of the inseparable link between constructive labour and natural cycles of renewal and a solicitous and respectful attitude towards natural sources of life.
Under the agenda item of “culture of peace”, the member states of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan [the Nowruz celebrating peoples] prepared and introduced a draft resolution entitled ʺInternational Day of Nowruzʺ to the ongoing 64th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations for its consideration and adoption.
In the 71st plenary meeting on 23 February 2010, The General Assembly welcomed the inclusion of Nowruz in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on 30 September 2009.
It also recognized 21 March as the International Day of Nowruz, and invited interested Member States, the United Nations, in particular its relevant specialized agencies, funds and programmes, and mainly the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and interested international and regional organizations, as well as non-governmental organizations, to participate in events organized by States where Nowruz is celebrated. Nowruz is thus a quintessential part of Persian culture, and being associated with Nowruz can effectively been seen as a synonymous with being associated with Persian heritage.
The proposed gTLD is, in fact, the name of an event common in between more than 300 million people around the word which fosters a culture of peace among different nations. While the .NOWRUZ gTLD ties back historically, linguistically and culturally to the Persian people, it also has the potential to tie together the tens of millions of people across the globe who live in territories of, or influenced by, the Old Persian Empire.
A robust gTLD has the power to bring together people across national borders in a free-flowing exchange of information and commerce. There is not a .COM or .ORG equivalent of the .NOWRUZ--a domain that has universal appeal across a common origin. ICANN is dedicated to creating more competition in the TLD space, and the introduction of those who seek to extend their interest in the Persian new year online through a .NOWRUZ gTLD does so in one simple stroke.
Asia Green IT System Bilgisayar San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti. (AGITSys) was founded by individuals of Persian origin who derive a great sense of honor and pride from their community, history and ancestry. AGITSys’ founders have gathered together a team with extensive experience in Persian language on the Internet, a daunting but critical task. The team behind AGITSys, including technical advisor⁄member Dr. Shararam Soubitopour has taken a leading role in working toward Persian domain names (something it considers an inevitability) for more than 8 years. No entity is better suited to manage the .NOWRUZ gTLD, nor more dedicated to providing new online tools and services to facilitate the unification of those interested in .NOWRUZ online. The .NOWRUZ gTLD will increasingly open up the vast resources of the Internet and the associated global interconnectedness to those interested in this cultural event , while stimulating the introduction of more online information and resources in the Persian language – and AGITSys will be at the helm of this change.
The company is not only perfectly situated ideologically, but also physically, as is headquartered in Turkey, which ties together the global Persian population through close relations both with the citizens of Persian-speaking countries and territories of, or influenced by, the Old Persian Empire in the East, as well as the diasporas of Persian language speakers in Western nations. Turkey’s geographical and political location aids it enormously in the endeavors needed for the .NOWRUZ gTLD to be a success, as it literally and figuratively sits in-between the East and West. |