MESOP MIDEAST WATCH :  PKK Makes False Promises to Take Kurdish Youths to Europe, Sends them to Qandil

ERBIL BASNEWS  6-11-22 The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) continues to recruit children from different areas of the Kurdistan Region, especially Sulaymaniyah province and Garmiyan Administration.

A PKK-affiliated group of four people, run by a man from the Kurdish areas in Turkey, in Koya city of Sulaymaniyah province has begun a campaign to prepare young people in the area under the name of “Education Courses, Aid and Media Organization” and then promises to take them to Europe, but they take them to Qandil.

According to the information BasNews has obtained, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) representation office in Koya has repeatedly asked the PKK to “take the problem out of Koya.”

Aras Kakarash, deputy head of the PUK representation office in Koya, told BasNews that the PKK previously kidnapped a number of 12 to 13-year-old children in Koya, making them false promises to take them to Europe. However, the children were returned to their families.

“Some of them were very young,” he added. “They were taken from here [Koya] to Qaradagh and from there to Qandil. Unfortunately, they have created a big chaos in this region.”

The PKK does not take the PUK’s concerns into consideration, Kakarash noted, stressing that the armed group should stop such activities in Koya and other areas

“It is true that the PUK has provided weapons and medical supplies to the PKK, but that does not mean that it should create problems here,” the Kurdish official said.

However, the PUK has officially asked the PKK not to interfere in the internal affairs in Sulaymaniyah province and other areas, Kakarash concluded.

The PKK via different affiliated groups continues to recruit children in different areas of Kurdistan Region and northeast of Syria.

BasNews previously reported abductions of dozens of children by the PKK-affiliated organization of Jwanen Shorishger, also known as the Revolutionary Youth.

Although the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has signed an official agreement with the United Nations to prevent child recruitment in northeast of Syria, the PKK-affiliated organization continues to recruit underages in the region.