MESOP REPORT : Gov’t criticized for inaction on minors kidnapped by PKK

May 17, 2014, Saturday/ 00:01:24/ BUKET YILMAZ/ ANKARA – As more and more minors are kidnapped by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) across the country to be recruited into the ranks of the terrorist group, the government remains silent and inactive, drawing the ire of opposition parties and observers.The number of minors kidnapped by the PKK exceeds 330 in the last six months, according to a recent National Police Department Counterterrorism Unit report.

One of the most recent cases is the abduction of 15 young people from a festival held on April 23 to celebrate Children’s Day in Diyarbakır’s Lice district. Families of the 15 high school students held a sit-in protest, claiming that the youngsters had been kidnapped by the PKK and demanding that action be taken. Also in April, 20 minors went missing in İzmir’s Bayraklı district. Their families claim that the teens were kidnapped by the terrorist group. They called on state authorities, asking the president and the prime minister to take action to find their sons.

According to Özcan Yeniçeri, a deputy from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, which has been promoting a “peace process” with the terrorist PKK as efforts to put an end to the sufferings of Turkish and Kurdish mothers who lost thousands of children in a string of bloody clashes over the past 30 years, is to blame for its inaction to find the kidnapped children.

“The PKK has been renewing its ranks in the mountains. And it meets its need for new members by kidnapping [Kurdish] minors who are mostly attending high school. The government does not say a word to object to this [kidnapping,]” Yeniçeri told Sunday’s Zaman and added that the government refrains from showing any reaction to the kidnapping of children by the PKK due to its concerns over the approaching presidential election.

There are rumors that the AK Party, which plans to nominate Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the presidential election of August, wants to secure the support of Kurdish voters to have its candidate elected. Kurdish voters account for around 5 percent of the total vote. According to rumors, the AK Party pledged the PKK to help it declare autonomy in southeastern Turkey in hopes of securing the vote of Kurds in the presidential election.

Yeniçeri also criticized Kurdish lawmakers for not taking action to save Kurdish youths from the hands of PKK terrorists. He said those lawmakers keep claiming that young Kurds join the PKK of their own free will, which, for him, does not reflect the truth.

After decades of violence, the PKK declared a cease-fire last year as part of a negotiation process with the state, but the settlement process was brought to the brink of deadlock when the PKK announced in September of last year that it had halted the withdrawal of its forces from Turkey. The PKK’s recent resurgence of activity throughout the region is fueling fears of a revival of clashes.

In order to attract more people to its ranks, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organization that includes the PKK, has established 48 training centers across 10 provinces in Turkey’s Southeast where a total of 8,500 young people are being trained in PKK ideology and tactics, according to a report of the National Police Department Counterterrorism Unit.

The funding for these centers is largely provided by municipalities administered by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), according to a previous police report. Also according to the earlier report, between 2000 and 2012 the PKK took approximately 4,000 youngsters to the mountains to fight, peaking in 2011 at 750 children that year.  

Grand Unity Party (BBP) leader Mustafa Destici criticized the government for its silence over the kidnapping of minors by the terrorist PKK. He said the PKK mostly kidnaps teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16 to recruit them in their camps in mountainous parts of northern Iraq. The young teens, after a long period of military training, are sent to Turkey to participate in terrorist attacks.

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-chairman Ertuğrul Kürkçü said he does not think that the kidnapped children were taken to the mountains in northern Iraq to recruit them to the ranks of the PKK. According to Kürkçü, many Kurdish youths are willing to join the PKK, and the terrorist group would not need to kidnap potential members in this case. Kürkçü noted that government officials should respond to calls from families of kidnapped children for help. However, he stated, those families should not stage protests in front of the offices of the HDP and its sister party, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). “They are right to have their voices heard in order to find their children, but the right place to do that is not our offices,” he added.

Neşet Öngün, the father of a 15-year-old boy who was allegedly abducted by the PKK in late March, said he and his family are expecting help from state authorities to find the whereabouts of his son. “We have learned that my son has been taken to the other side of the [Turkish] frontier,” said the grieving father, probably implying that the PKK took his son to northern Iraq, where the terrorist group has military bases, to train him for future terrorist attacks.

“I am working for a low salary. Despite this, I have been fighting to send my children to school and have them grow up as educated individuals. My son is 15 years old. And they [PKK] have stolen him from me. Is this what they call humanity? This is inhumane,” Öngün said, and called on the president, the prime minister and Kurdish deputies to lend their support to find his son.

On May 9, the family members of 16-year-old Vedat Aydın launched a sit-in protest in front of the building of the Hizan district governor’s office to make authorities help them to find the boy, who they claimed was kidnapped by PKK terrorists on his way to school. Aydın’s mother, Leman Aydın, said they have done their best to find their son but in vain. She also said the family would continue their protest until they are reunited with Vedat. “My son suffers from asthma. They [PKK] deceived my son and took him to the mountains [to recruit to the terrorist group.] I have not heard from my son for more than one month. My son was very ill. How can a 16-year-old child join a terrorist group of his own free will? They deceived my son and forced him to go to the mountains,” she stated. http://www.todayszaman.com/news-347932-govt-criticized-for-inaction-on-minors-kidnapped-by-pkk.html