The PKK terrorist group continues to recruit more children as its affiliated websites revealed over 10 underage girls joined the terror cell on Friday. The group’s continued recruitment of children was again condemned on social media.
A website affiliated with the terrorist group, Nuçe Ciwan, praised the children as if they willingly joined the ranks of the group, calling them “young women."
“Young women from Rojava joined the ranks of the PKK,” the website said in an article, mentioning the obviously underaged children.
Turkish people took to social media, condemning the terrorist group for its efforts to recruit more children, which is a felony according to both Turkish laws and international law.
Kurdish mothers whose children were abducted by the YPG/PKK have been staging a sit-in protest in southeastern Turkey’s Diyarbakır city in front of the pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) office for over 10 months.
The YPG/PKK's use of child soldiers has been repeatedly documented and criticized by international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The group reportedly tricks families into giving up their children or outright kidnaps them, taking them to training camps where they are denied contact with their families.
In 2018, a United Nations annual report on children in armed conflict revealed 224 cases of child recruitment by the YPG/PKK between January and December in 2017, a fivefold increase compared with previous years.
Human Rights Watch also documented that the terrorist group continues to recruit children despite objections from families and prevents parents from getting in touch with their kids.
Human rights organizations have also documented the YPG/PKK's use of torture and their deliberate disruption of educational and health services.
The Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War prohibits the use of children under the age of 15 as soldiers.
