DIYARBAKIR, Turkey
Families in southeastern Turkey want to be overjoyed with the return of their kids, who were kidnapped and recruited by the YPG/PKK terror group, ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
A protest began on Sept. 3 last year in Diyarbakir province 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 Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) — which the government accuses of having links to YPG/PKK — has been growing by the day with the participation of many others since then.
Demonstrators have vowed to stay till everyone of them is reunited with their offspring.
On Wednesday, the 324th day of the protest, Aynur Panay, one of the protesting mothers, said she has not heard from her son for nine years.
“I will not move from here till he comes back,” she said, calling on her son to surrender to security forces before Eid.
In Turkey, the festival will be observed between July 31 and Aug. 3.
Songul Altintas, another mother, reiterated determination to continue the protest for her child abducted six years ago.
“I want my son back from the PKK and HDP,” she said.
“Eid is near but I don’t want to go home without my son,” Altintas said, adding that they do not enjoy festivities without their children.
In Turkey, offenders linked to terrorist groups are eligible for possible sentence reductions under a repentance law after laying down their arms.
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 PKK’s Syrian offshoot.
* Writing by Sena Guler
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