Fifty-five PKK terrorist members surrendered to Turkish security forces after persuasion efforts amid the protests of their mothers in the past six years, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Tuesday.

In a message he posted on X, Yerlikaya said Sept. 3 marked the sixth year of the parents’ protests launched by a group of grieving mothers in the southeastern Diyarbakır province, which later spread to other provinces with more parents demanding their children, most of whom were forcefully recruited by the terrorist group, return home.

"With their protests, 55 terrorist members were persuaded to surrender," Yerlikaya said, adding that Türkiye, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, would continue to crush terrorism.

In 2019, a group of mothers who had not heard from their children for years initiated a protest outside the now-defunct pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)'s headquarters.

They claimed that the party staff helped the PKK to draw recruits. Under the guise of participation in "festivals" and similar events organized by the HDP, the Kurdish youth was brainwashed into joining the terrorist group.

The women’s simple protest in Diyarbakır soon grew into something larger and eventually led to a lengthy sit-in strike. The "children watch," as they themselves dubbed it, drew some 375 families while fathers joined the sit-in strike.

It also gave birth to similar protests in other eastern provinces and, in one case, in Germany, where a mother launched a solo sit-in against PKK’s abduction of her daughter.

The solidarity of families drew nationwide praise and shed light on the dark side of the terrorist group seeking legitimacy through the HDP.

In about five years, some 53 families reunited with their children. Some children, now in their 20s, fled the terrorist group when they became aware of the sit-in, while others were already planning to escape from the northern Iraqi hideouts of the group.

Türkiye has remorse laws in place for surrendering terrorists. In some cases, they can walk free if they are not involved in lethal terrorist attacks.