Turkey: Sit-in families continue anti-PKK protest

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey

As a group of weeping families continue their sit-in protest in eastern Turkey’s Diyarbakir province, they call on their children abducted by the PKK terror group to surrender to security forces.

The protest began on Sept. 3 last year in the city of Diyarbakir, when Fevziye Cetinkaya, Remziye Akkoyun, and Aysegul Bicer said their children had been forcibly recruited by PKK terrorists. The sit-in outside the office of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) -- which the government accuses of having links to YPG/PKK -- has been growing day by day with the participation of many others since then.

One of the mothers, Nazli Sancar, said her daughter Seyma was abducted by the terror group in 2011 at the age of only 13, and the tearful mother has not heard of her child since then.

Sancar said Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice, was approaching and she did not want to spend another Eid without her beloved child, saying she was weary of waiting for her child.

“Our hearts are bleeding, we just want our children back. We did not give birth, or raise our children for the sake of HDP,” said the mother, urging her child to surrender to security authorities.

Abdullah Demir, one of the protesting fathers, said the absence of his child was the greatest pain he had ever suffered from.

The father accused the terror group of forcibly recruiting children, and said it did not have any humanitarian values.

Offenders in Turkey linked to terrorist groups who surrender are eligible for possible sentence reductions under a repentance law.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.

* Writing by Ali Murat Alhas in Ankara.