A Turkish-German mother, who has been demanding her daughter’s return from her forced recruitment by the PKK terrorist group, continued her protest in front of the Brandenburg Gate in the capital Berlin.
Wearing a T-shirt that says “PKK is a virus,” the tearful mother Maide T., called on her daughter to return home.
“Please, come to your senses and return home before something worse happens,” she told her daughter Nilüfer T., as she said she hopes that Nilüfer returns home before her birthday on Aug. 10.
“I want to be with her on her birthday. I really want her to return as a birthday present, that would be the biggest gift of all for me, as I find it really difficult to celebrate her birthday without her,” Maide T. added.
A group of people supported the sad mother’s protest by holding placards and posters.
A Berlin resident, Maide has been trying to find her daughter since Nov. 12, when Nilüfer was kidnapped by the PKK. Yet, all her efforts seem to be in vain as German police refuse to help her.
In late May, she called on Chancellor Angela Merkel to help her and held protests in front of the German chancellory.
Inviting people to stand in solidarity with her, she said her daughter was influenced by PKK propaganda after she visited a cultural center in Berlin last year. Thereafter, she was forcibly recruited and probably sent to a terror camp abroad.
"If they come under pressure, they will release my daughter within 24 hours," she said, urging German authorities to take action against the group.
The PKK has been banned in Germany since 1993, but it remains active, with nearly 14,500 followers among the country's Kurdish immigrant population.
The terror group uses recruitment tactics among Kurdish communities across Europe, including blackmailing with the safety of family members.
Turkey has long criticized German authorities for not taking serious measures against the PKK which uses the country as a platform for their fundraising, propaganda and recruitment activities.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
One of the terrorist group's commonly known practices is to recruit under-age children forcibly by abducting them from their families.
In Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakır province, dozens of families have been staging a protest for almost a year now, demanding their children back from the terrorist group.
The protest started when Hacire Akar turned up at the doorstep of the pro-PKK People's Democratic Party (HDP)'s Diyarbakır office one night. A week later, on Sept. 3, 2019, families inspired by Akar transformed her solo stance into a collective sit-in protest. Akar's son, Mehmet, returned home on Aug. 24, showing other families that there is still hope.
Since then, the number of protesting mothers has grown as they demand the return of their children, who, they say, were deceived or kidnapped by the terror group.
Nine families, whose children were kidnapped by the terrorist group, have been reunited with their sons and daughters so far.
"Unlike mothers in Diyarbakır, I feel lonely in Berlin," she said, underlining that still, nothing is strong enough to make her stop her protests.
"I will not stop until I reach my daughter, my aim," she said.
The sorrowful mother also called on Turkish authorities to bring the issue to the table when they have their next talks with the German authorities.
