While the Kurdish celebration has taken the form of a political expression in Turkey, most Kurdish celebrations in Iran are identical to the national festivals. Ethnographer Mehrdad R. Izady states that the reason for this may be that the original tradition and folklore behind Newroz has been lost in the northern and western parts of Kurdistan, where it never evolved in the same way as in the southern and eastern parts. Izady further states that perhaps Newroz has just been getting better press because of the prominence that its staunchest adherents – the Kurds in the Iraqi and Iranian Kurdish regions – have been enjoying through their more frequent popular uprisings. Thus the western and northern Kurds seem to perceive the celebration of the new year as a unifying political expression.