Children who were deceived or abducted and taken to the mountains by the YPG/PKK terrorist group have revealed the activities and brutal practices of the organization.
A total of 15 children, including two Syrian nationals, who were forcibly recruited by the terrorist group, have been defined as "victims of human trafficking" by Turkey’s Immigration Management Directorate.
Interviews with the children, aged 9 to 17 years old, revealed how they were deceived and persecuted by the YPG/PKK terrorist group.
A Syrian national who escaped from the YPG/PKK group, which he joined at the age of 14, recalled: "They (terrorists) said we will take you to a place in the Derik region, train you and send you back. You will return to your home again."
"After completing the training, we realized that they have no intention to send us back. They wanted us to become guerrilla fighters and to forget about our families," he said.
"They told us that Turkey is our biggest enemy," he recalled, saying the terrorists also used "psychological pressure" to prevent anyone from leaving.
"I am very glad that I escaped. When I came back, there was a law of remorse. I was tried under the remorse law."
The terrorist group's recruitment and exploitation of children in the conflict-hit country were also reflected in reports by the United Nations.
The terrorists are given opportunities to confess and explain the ordeal they endured. This helps them gain some benefits from remorse that can ultimately lessen their level of punishment.
Once the terrorists surrender to security forces, they are reintegrated and provided with various opportunities, including the right to education as well as the freedom to live without intimidation or ill-treatment. They are given opportunities for judicial assistance and can communicate with their families when the need arises.
Persuasion, however, is not the sole strategy used by the Turkish authorities in convincing terrorists to surrender. Those who manage to run away from terrorist camps in the midst of Turkish military operations and those who have nowhere to go eventually tend to surrender to the security forces.
The number of people joining the PKK organization has significantly decreased over the years, to the extent that the majority of these people have no or little interest in joining them. According to statistics, 703 people joined the PKK in 2016, in 2017 it declined to 161 and in 2018 it was 136. In 2019, this number further declined to 108.