Mehmet Siddik Kaya and Ozgur Ayaydin
26 February 2020•Update: 27 February 2020
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey
More families with hearts crushed over the recruitment of their children and relatives by the PKK terrorists are gathering in southeastern Turkey since last September for a sit-in protest against the terror group.
On its 177th day, Zumrut Salim, mother of a teen son Hamza, joined the protest staged outside the Diyarbakir office of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), a political party accused by the government of having links to the YPG/PKK.
The mother said her son was kidnapped in the eastern Hakkari province six years ago when he was 14.
The father, Tahir, said that his son was attending a boarding course teaching the holy Quran when he was kidnapped, and accused the HDP of separating the family with their son.
“We won’t leave here until our son returns,” he vowed.
The sorrowful mother urged his son to surrender to Turkish security forces.
‘He left for school and never came back’
Halil Ciftci and Islim Ciftci from southeastern Sanliurfa province have not seen their son Ali Bedrettin Ciftci for seven years.
Ali left home in the morning to go to school when he was 15 years old and his parents have not heard about him since then.
“We decided to join these families after we saw them on the TV,” the mother said.
Raife Tasdelen from the central Nigde province is also one of the protesters, who has been looking for her brother Tuncay Oguz, who was 19-year-old when kidnapped.
Tasdelen said her brother was kidnapped in Nusaybin district of southeastern Mardin province and burst into tears while calling on him to come back.
“I love him soo much. I want to see him again.”
The protest started on Sept. 3 outside the office of HDP in Diyarbakir when Fevziye Cetinkaya, Remziye Akkoyun and Aysegul Bicer said their children were coerced or recruited or even kidnapped by YPG/PKK terrorists.
Since then, the number of families protesting in front of the building has increased demanding the return of their children whom they claim were deceived or kidnapped by the terror group.
Nine families have been reunited with their children so far.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.
*Writing by Burak Dag
