Families' sit-in against PKK terrorism spreads through SE Turkey

DIYARBAKIR/VAN, Turkey (AA) - After mothers in Diyarbakir, a province in southeastern Turkey, first staged a sit-in to protest the PKK terrorist organization abducting or forcibly recruiting their children, families with the same grievance have converged on other cities across the region as well.

The families in Diyarbakir have been protesting since Sept. 3, 2019, encouraging their children to give up their weapons and surrender to authorities.

Protests outside the office of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) started with three mothers who said their children had been forcibly recruited by the terrorists. The Turkish government says the HDP has links to the PKK terror group.

Hacire Akar sparked the protests on Aug. 22, 2019 after PKK terrorists took her younger son, Mehmet, to the mountains just ahead of his wedding, as they had done his older brother 25 years ago before he died in 2017.

Furious over her the grief she had been made to suffer and fearing Mehmet would meet the same fate as his brother, Akar decided to take matters into her own hands and rushed to the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) office in Diyarbakir.

Accompanied by two relatives, mother Akar began her protest and said she would not leave until her son was brought back. Her determination and the efforts of anti-terror forces eventually bore fruit and Mehmet was brought back on Aug. 24.

Akar became a source of inspiration for scores of other families believing the HDP was responsible for the disappearance, abduction and forced recruitment of their own children.

Three mothers -- Fevziye Cetinkaya, Remziye Akkoyun and Aysegul Bicer -- started another sit-in on Sept. 3, 2019, claiming their children were abducted. The protest outside the office has been growing ever since.

So far, 225 families have joined the sit-in, with dozens still protesting every day. Their efforts have not been in vain, as 25 of their children have laid down their weapons and surrendered to Turkish authorities.

Those who surrender to the Turkish state are eligible for sentence reductions under a repentance law.

First having started in Diyarbakir, the sit-in protests have now spread to the provinces of Sirnak, Hakkari, Van, and Mus.

- Sirnak

Hamdiye Aslan and Emine Ustek, whose sons were abducted by the terror group, began their demonstration on Sept. 10, 2020.

The two mothers continue their sit-in protests every Thursday in front of the HDP provincial building.

- Hakkari

In Hakkari, 12 families seeking to save their children from the PKK have been protesting every other Friday in front of the HDP provincial office since Jan. 8, 2021.

- Van

Protests that began with the participation of five families in Van on Feb. 26, 2021 continue every Thursday, growing as new families join.

Now 32, the families come together on Cumhuriyet Avenue and chanting and raising banners against the PKK terrorist organization and the HDP, marching as they march to the party's provincial building.

Maintaining the sit-in, they call on their children to surrender to the security forces.

- Mus

Three more families have joined the original two that started the demonstrations in Mus on April 7, 2021.

The five families express their anguish against both the PKK and HDP, sitting in front of the latter's provincial building every Wednesday.

- Izmir

Father Mehmet Lacin, who attended the sit-in in Diyarbakır to reunite with his daughter, continued protesting in front of the HDP provincial office in the western Izmir province, where he went to receive bypass surgery on Feb. 7, 2020.

After Lacin, father Yasur Dulge and mother Muhbet Alemdag also joined the protest in Izmir to reunite with their sons.

- Berlin

Maide T, mother of Nilufer T, who lives in Berlin and was kidnapped by the supporters of the terrorist organization PKK, started a sit-in in front of an association supporting the terror organization on Feb. 29, 2020 to locate her daughter, whom she has not heard from since Nov. 12, 2019.

Maide continues to protest in front of the Chancellery to catch the attention of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.