Our press statement titled as “Why do you keep quiet about the child soldiers of PKK?” has been released to the public at a press conference held in the center of association by Ayhan Küçük, president of UHIM.
The calls made to the terrorists to surrender are occasionally reacted positively during the operations carried out against the terrorist groups which act as the extensions of the global powers on our national territory. When the images reflected on media are analyzed, it is seen that most of the ones surrendered consist of school-aged children and young people. They expressed that they are deceived by the terrorist organization which did not dignify themselves and used them as pawns.
This situation which reflected on the public’s agenda once again with the occasion of the operations, is actually verified by the official numbers published before. According to the records of police and gendarmerie, PKK has kidnapped 2,052 children under the age of 18 since August 2013. Meanwhile, 554 of these children are under the age of 15 and according to the Geneva Convention, to mobilize children under 15 or to recruit them in the armed conflict is a ‘war crime’.
We, as UHIM International Center for Watching Violations of Rights, made inquiries that verify this grim reality in the interviews we held on June 2014 in Diyarbakır with the families staging a sit-in due to the kidnapping of their children by PKK. In these one on one interviews made with tens of families, it is expressed that the number of kidnapped-children even exceeds the number known; for example, more than 1,500 elementary and secondary school-aged children were kidnapped by PKK in the recent year before the interview.
In the face of this desperate situation, in public opinion we ask;
-Why do the international judicial institutions like The International Criminal Court (ICC) and European Court of Human Rights (E) keep quite about this practice of the terrorist organization?
-Why do NOT non-governmental organizations centered in the USA and Europe bringing up the ‘child warriors’ in the war zones of Asia and Africa to the agenda like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children prepare a report about how PKK kidnaps the children and turns them into terrorists waging war against their own country?
-Why do Geneva Call, an institution based in Switzerland, saying “We do not have any mechanisms to impose legal saction in Turkey, but if any violations are identified, we will certainly share this in public opinion.” and signing “Geneva Call’s Deed of Commitment for the Protection of Children from the Effects of Armed Conflict” with PKK in 2013 , removed the convention that they shared in public opinion and why do not make any statements after this obvious violation?
-Why do NOT the global institutions particularly the United Nations (UN) and the European (EU) and the subsidiaries which operate depending on these institutions express that they are with Turkey in the face of this practice which is seen as a ‘war crime’?
-Why do NOT the international media companies which are NOT shy about displaying the terrorist organization sympathetic in their publications bring this situation that aggrieves tens of thousands of children and their families to the agenda?
You can reach the press statements we released before on this subject and the details about the visits below: