January 11, 2019•Update: January 11, 2019
By Baris Gundogan
ANKARA
The YPG/PKK terror group has been forcibly recruiting children between ages 11 and 16 years old.
Anadolu Agency compiled data on Friday which shows the PKK has been kidnapping children to use them in terrorist attacks as they have done for many years.
This terror group separates minors from their families to fight illegally in the north of Syria and Iraq.
Trafficking in Persons Report -- published by the U.S. in July 2015 -- says that PKK sometimes kidnaps Kurdish children or forces them to join the terrorist group.
The same report published in June 2016 says that PKK's Syrian branch PYD/YPG recruited and used boys and girls younger than 15 years and took them to training camps.
In addition to the U.S., several international human rights organizations and NGOs drew attention to the PKK's inhumane attitude.
A report by Human Rights Watch published on June 19, 2014 says that YPG was using boys and girls younger than 18 at checkpoints in Afrin, Ayn al-Arab (Kobane) and Jazira provinces in Syria.
UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic said in their report in August 2013 that YPG recruited 12-year-old boys and girls in Afrin and Al-Hasakah provinces.
A Human Rights Watch report published on July 10, 2015 says that PYD/YPG did not fulfil their commitment to stop using minors in clashes.
YPG and YPJ [YPG's female unit] recruited minors and made them fight and some children were killed in July 2015.
YPG admitted that this group recruited 16 and 17-year-old children but it said that they did not use them for military purpose.
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court says that recruiting and using persons under 15 years of age is regarded as a war crime.
In Dec. 2016, Human Rights Watch said that PKK used children in Iraq and YPG/PKK recruited girls and boys and kidnapped those who wanted to leave or abused them.
The field research in Iraq said that minors under the age of 15 fought in clashes, and were manned in checkpoints or for weapon maintenance.
Many children lost their contacts after going to PYD's so-called youth centers as their families learned that they joined PYD/YPG or were forced to be taken to the terror group later.
In an interview, minors Arhat and Fatima Salim Ali said that they were forcibly recruited to fight for the terror group.
A similar case happened to 13-year-old Maisa Muhyiddin Akirman as PYD/YPG took her from school to join the terrorist organization. Her family protested this however they learned that Maisa was in a YPJ camp.
Sidra Muhammad Said Uthman, 16, was assigned to serve for the PYD as a so-called traffic police officer in Syria's Tal Tamr town but she was killed in June 2015.
Uthman was reported to have been shot accidentally by her own rifle.
Families of the children kidnapped by PKK are afraid of the terror group's retaliation and refuse to speak to the media.
In another Human Rights Watch report, a 16-year-old girl left her refugee camp to join the PKK in January 2015.
It is said that her family rushed to the PKK's training camp to reach their daughter as many children -- including those aged 11 -- in the PKK camps were seen to be carrying AK-47 rifles.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women and children. The YPG is its Syrian branch.
