Türkİye, Diyarbakir Mothers on Children Watch

Another family joins anti-PKK sit-in in southeastern Turkey

Families have been protesting for return of their children abducted by PKK terrorists since 2019

Mehmet Sıddık Kaya  | 16.06.2021 - Update : 16.06.2021
Another family joins anti-PKK sit-in in southeastern Turkey

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey 

One more family has joined the ongoing sit-in against the PKK terrorist group in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday.

Families of children abducted or forcibly recruited by the PKK terror group have been protesting in the Diyarbakir province since Sept. 3, 2019, encouraging their children to give up their weapons and surrender to Turkish authorities.

The protest outside the office of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which the government accuses of having links to the PKK, had started with three mothers who said their children had been forcibly recruited by the terrorists.

Coming from eastern Batman province, Yasemin Gonyeli, the mother of 21-year-old Muhammed, who was abducted and taken to the mountains last year, joined the protest on Wednesday.

Gonyeli said that her son was deceived while he was preparing for mandatory military service.

She said she has not heard from her son for 11 months and urged her son to surrender to Turkish security forces.

“The HDP shall bring my child back just as it took him away,” she said.

Offenders in Turkey linked to terrorist groups who surrender are eligible for possible sentence reductions under a repentance law.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

*Writing by Sena Guler in Ankara


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