By Ozgur Ayaydin, Mehmet Siddik Kaya, and Bestami Bodruk
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AA) – On Sunday nine ambassadors from foreign missions in Turkey paid a visit to protesting mothers and fathers seeking the return of their children abducted by the terrorist group YPG/PKK.
The ambassadors of Ukraine, Romania, the Turkish Republic of Cyprus (TRNC), Iran, Iraq, Britain, India, and Kyrgyzstan visited families who have been staging a sit-in protest outside the offices of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey’s southeastern Diyarbakir province.
The HDP is accused by the government of having links to the terrorist group YPG/PKK, and accused by the protesting mothers of kidnapping or tricking their children to join the terror group.
“Europe sees the problem as a Kurdish issue, but in fact, it is not,” said Aysel Bozkurt, who is seeking the return of her missing cousin. “We are sitting here as Kurds, but they present our children to the [YPG/PKK] group on a golden platter.”
Another protester, Suleyman Aydin, accused the HDP of being complicit in the abduction of children. According to the local father, his son Ozkan was recruited by the HDP four years ago, when he was just 15 years old.
“The HDP threatens us and blocks our way every day but I’m not leaving without my son,” Aydin said during the diplomats’ visit.
The protest started on Sept. 3 in Diyarbakir when a mother, Fevziye Cetinkaya, said her underage son had been forcibly recruited by YPG/PKK terrorists with the help of members of the HDP.
Since then, the number of protesting families has been growing, as they demand the return of their children, who, they say, were deceived or kidnapped by PKK terrorists.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU — has been responsible for deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.
*Writing by Havva Kara Aydin
