Nowruz Commission Gala Event to be Held in Washington, D.C.

March 1, 2012, Washington D.C.  – Nowruz Commission, an alliance of twelve cultures who celebrate Nowruz on the first day of Spring at the exact moment of vernal equinox as the beginning of a new year, announced its third annual gala event in Washington. The event will be held at the Hall of the Americas in the historic building of the Organization of the American States on March 17, 2012.

The Commission held its inaugural event at the Great Hall of Thomas Jefferson building of the Library of Congress, where members of Congress from both major parties presided over the event, and the account of its inauguration was registered in the Congressional Record. “Nowruz has been celebrated by many cultures for thousands of years. The historical point was that Afghans, Azeris, Georgians, Iraqis, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Persians, Russians, Tatars, Tajiks, Turks, and Ukrainians had never before celebrated Nowruz together under the same roof until March 17, 2010” said the Commission’s Chairman and Co-founder Nasser Kazeminy.

“The Commission started as a result of a conversation between me and Bijan Kian, at The White House in March 2008. Nasser joined us to form the Commission, and Gissou made the inaugural event a great success. We are all delighted to be together in the Commission”. Erlan Idrissov, current Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the United States, says of the history of the formation of the Commission.

“We said to each other: it is great to be at The White House, but we should get together and celebrate Nowruz with all the other cultures.” Bijan Kian, a Co-Founder of Nowruz Commission and its current Vice Chairman, recalls the conversation.

The Commission is proud of its accomplishments. Two-years after its formation, it is growing not just by the number of cultures it represents in its membership, but also by way of expanding abroad. Nowruz Commission Ambassadors are installed in London, Rome, Istanbul, Tbilisi, Dushanbe, and Baku. “This is just the beginning, we are sharing Nowruz with the whole world.” Says Gissou Kian, the Commission’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are excited about our Ghahraman initiative starting in Kabul next month. Ghahramans are champions.

They compete to volunteer to do good in their communities. The winner gets a cash prize. We will publicize their work around the world.” She added.

Nowruz Commission is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of care and compassion embedded in the philosophy in the ancient rites of Nowruz. His Excellency Erlan Idrissov is the Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United States and Brazil. The Honorable Bijan R. Kian is the former member of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. As a senior member of the administration, he served under both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, from 2006-2011.