A group of families marked the 1,175th day of their sit-in strike in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakır on Sunday, for the return of their children abducted by the PKK terrorist group.
Known as the "Diyarbakır Mothers" because of the high number of mothers protesting, the group slammed a political party affiliated with the terrorist group on World Children’s Day.
"The HDP always talks about human rights, children’s rights but I wonder what they think about the rights of our children," Sariye Tokay, one of the protesters, told Anadolu Agency (AA). Tokay, whose son was brainwashed to join the terrorist group, is among mothers spending their days outside the Diyarbakır offices of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
The sit-in strike, which was started by a small group on Sept. 3, 2019, snowballed and extended to other cities. But the central to protests is Diyarbakır, a province with a large Kurdish population which the terrorist group exploited for its so-called cause for Kurdish rights. Over time, the number of families joining the protest from Diyarbakır and other provinces mounted to 331.
Yet, only 38 among them reunited their sons and daughters who were teenagers or younger when they were abducted or brainwashed by the terrorist group. Still, their resolve persists, as mothers, fathers and siblings clutched to old photos of their beloved ones.
Tokay’s son Mehmet was only 14 years old when he was brainwashed by the terrorist group 11 years ago. She did not hear from him since and said she awaits "good news." "Today is World Children's Day. Our children were taken from their families. Their dreams were shattered. We hoped they would go to school but the (PKK) took them and handed them weapons instead," she lamented.
"The HDP has no right to let us suffer. We will continue our protest until the children return to their families. I call on all children (who were convinced to join PKK) to turn themselves in to authorities," she urged.
Similarly, Zeliha Yaşar’s 17-year-old son joined the terrorist group eight years ago after militants brainwashed him. "The HDP itself delivers those children to the (PKK)," she said. Protesters claim that most of the children were convinced to join the terrorist group by people associated with the party. "I call on my son to return home if he can. If they have a little bit of a conscience, they’d return our children to us. We did not raise our children for them and we will not let them keep our children," she asserted.
Ali Şahin, the father of Nupeldan who was brainwashed to join the PKK seven years ago, when she was 14, said she was "tricked" to join the terrorist group while she was visiting an HDP election office. "A 14-year-old girl cannot join such a thing with her own will," he decried. Şahin said he was a Kurd as well but the PKK had nothing to do with the rights of Kurds.
"We want our children back and will stay here as long as they do not come back. Today is World Children's Day and my child is not with me. I don’t even know if she is alive or dead," he said.
Meanwhile, Celil Begdaş, whose son Yusuf was 17 when he was "taken to the mountain" three years ago (an expression used for people joining the terrorist group, which hides out in mountains in southeastern Türkiye and Northern Iraq), repeats his call for the "release" of his son. "The HDP is not sincere when they are talking about the rights of children," he said. The HDP, an offshoot of former political parties linked to the terrorist group, often portrays itself as a left-wing organization advocating human rights.