Since September 3, 2019, more than 108 Kurdish families have been sitting in front of the Democratic People’s Party (HDP) office – the PKK branch – in Diyarbakir. They say “the HDP has a role in kidnapping our children and bringing them to PKK camps in Qandil mountains, Northern Iraq and must return them.” Today, three more families joined the protesters..
Fatima Aksu from Kucaeli says: My son is only 17 years old. I sent him to the bakery to buy bread, but he did not return and his friends said the PKK had taken him. My son is a student and has heart disease that needs to be monitored regularly by a doctor. I want my son to come back. He has to go to school.
Also, Jamal, a disabled father, says: HDP holds events and meetings under various pretexts, and this is an opportunity for PKK members to get to know, deceive and abduct children and adolescents. I want my son from the HDP.
Mohammed Dicle also took a photo of his brother demanding that his 14-year-old brother be returned, saying: “What does a 14-year-old child know about the war, why should they be banned from school?” He has been in the PKK for five years. He was shown on a PKK-affiliated TV channel armed in Syria. Enough. Stop kidnapping our children.
It should be noted that five Iranian Kurdish families also took part in the sit-in last fall and demanded the return of their children, who were kidnapped by the PJAK, branch of the PKK. Under international law, the use of under 18 as soldiers is a war crime. After the sit-in, PKK Armed Forces commander Murad Karayilan told the parents: “We will not return your children even if you sit there for ten years.
